


Curiosities

by Chickygirl



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Death Eater!Hermione Granger, F/M, Fluff, Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy Friendship, Hermione Granger & Harry Potter Friendship, Hermione!centric, Horcrux Restoration, Master of Death (Harry Potter), The Deathly Hallows, Time Turner (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:47:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 37
Words: 166,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21639814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chickygirl/pseuds/Chickygirl
Summary: Hermione's first introduction into the magical world is by two very different men, one light, and one dark, but the one she is enamored with is the one everyone fears.
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Harry Potter, Hermione Granger & Severus Snape, Hermione Granger & Tom Riddle, Hermione Granger & Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 88
Kudos: 339





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone, this is my first time publishing on this site but this is the first of my stories that I am transferring over from Fanfiction. Hope ya'll like them as much on here as there!

" _Every child is born a naturalist. Their eyes are, by nature, open to the glories of the stars, the beauty of flowers, and the mysteries of life."_

~.O.~

"Hermione! Can you come down here please, love?" she heard her mother call to her from downstairs.

"Coming Mom!" The little girl called from where she lay with her head hanging over the end of her bed, her long caramel curls just about touching the floor as she held her book above her face. Sweeping downstairs, her white dress twisted around her ankles almost tripping her in her energetic flurry into the Granger dining room.

Albus Dumbledore in his usual half moon spectacles, and Severus Snape in his black frock both sat in the bright living room of the two muggles who stood whispering in their kitchen.

"She's always been different Mark, ever since she was a baby," Mrs. Granger took the pot off the stove as it started to whistle, "Remember when she made a flower bloom in her hand when she was three? It was dead Mark, and she brought it back to red."

"Yes, I remember Sheila," Mr. Granger put the pot onto a tray, taking cups and saucers from the cupboard. "Our little girl is very special."

"Try to be nice Severus," Dumbledore said to the Head of Slytherin House, hearing little feet pattering down the stairs, "Introducing a new student into our world is a wonderful thing, try not to look as if you despise them on sight".

Severus sneered at the old headmaster as he got up from his position to join his now standing master, though he did smooth his features into his usual mask. He turned to the stairs just as his new bright eyed student came into view.

Hermione wasn't expecting two grown men to be at the end of the stairs when she set foot on the last step, especially one who wore such a bright purple with a beard and hair as long as hers. Or a very tall intimidating man who looked as if he was doing his best to imitate stone.

"Hello, Hermione," the older man greeted her with a smile and a clasp of his hands as her parents came bustling in, her dad putting a hand on her shoulder to lead her further into the room. "My name is Albus Dumbledore, I am Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and this is Severus Snape, our Potions Master."

Hermione had sat down next to Severus while her parents talked to the Headmaster, not paying attention to the glance they gave her, and listened to what they said. Although, it wasn't anything she didn't already know. She had always known she was different, and she had a feeling the man she sat beside was different too, but not viewed in a good way by other people as her being witch would be. They made quite a picture, her with her bare little feet dangling off the edge of the sofa, holding a porcelain cup with dainty fingers looking up to the imposing profile of the man to her right who held his own cup but never once took a sip.

Taking a sip of her own she continued to look up to him as he stared hard at the crackling fireplace over her head, his eyes snapping down when he felt cold fingers gently prying his long ones from his untouched tea only to replace it with the one she had already taken a drink of. Cocking his eyebrow at her hidden smile, his obsidian eyes hold her hazel ones as he drank the already tasted tea as he accepted that it was not tampered with while the rim hid the slight quirk of his lips.

Dumbledore the only one to see the exchange, he hides his bafflement well as over the fact of seeing the boy he has known for over twenty years take food from anyone other than the House Elves. And from a young _child_ no less.

After taking out quite a few books from a pocket that should not have held them, Dumbledore purposely strode out of the quaint muggle home before the Potions Master after bidding farewell to the elder Grangers'. Leaving Severus to discuss any further issues such as the new little witch's first trip to Diagon Alley, his mind quickly dismissed any out of the ordinary moments between the wizard and witch as he disapparated after popping a lemon drop in his mouth.

Hermione hadn't planned on doing anything of the sort, but the short time she spent in his presence demanded that she at least try to take some of the hardness out of his mouth. As soon as her parents had left her to see the professors' out, she flung her pale arms around his lean waist as her eyes rested right beside his snake engraved frock buttons, tracing the design in her mind.

Severus was momentarily stunned, his arms akimbo as if not knowing where to put them.

"Ms. Granger," Hermione heard him speak for the first time, his deep baritone startling her as she had never heard a voice that deep, but she didn't let go, only angling her head up and smiling brightly. "What are you doing?"

"Mummy always says if someone's not smiling they could use a hug," she gave him a light squeeze as if to accentuate her meaning. "And if they still won't smile to not let go until they do or hug you back."

Severus stared at the very strange girl whose head barely reached up to his hip and thought she might be the strangest witch he had ever met, and that's saying something with how many witches he had encountered in his life.

"You will refuse to let go, girl?"

"Nope. Mummy's always right."

"Will a book get you to, silly girl?"

Her eyes lit up as if she had gotten a puppy, the same as they had when Dumbledore had given her his stack of magical books with moving pictures. She let the dark man go to bounce slightly on the balls of her bare feet as he pulled out a thin book from a hidden pocket beside his buttons.

"Here, girl. I would have it back once the school term starts."

She flung her arms around her new professor once again, not seeing the small smile he did indeed have now as he swept down the porch stairs in a flurry of black cloth, leaving her to devour his book laying on the floor where they had stood.


	2. 1st Year Part One

" _A teacher is never a giver of truth; he is a guide, pointer to the truth that each student must find for themself."_

~.O.~

"You have everything, darling? Books, clothes, your jumpers?" Hermione's mom was fussing about her daughter, not wanting to let her go as she grabbed her up in a squeeze. "You have the quilt Grandma made you right? It's going to be cold up there."

Hermione laughed just as there was a knock on the door. Dancing out of her mother's reach she opened the red door to the imposing figure of Severus Snape in a black Muggle suit.

"Hi!" she clasped her hands around him, and after months of working with him, she finally got him to respond by staying wrapped around him until he reciprocated.

Since he and Dumbledore had come to her house those many months ago, Hermione had devoured the books the Headmaster had given her as well as others Severus had given her, leaving her with a passion almost as big for Potions as she had for learning new things. She had just about bought every book in Flourish and Blotts when they had gone to pick up her wand during their first trip to Diagon Alley if he had not told her Hogwarts had about everyone of them and more in it's own library. The man called Severus Snape was an enigma that Hermione could read so easily at times, and isn't that such a paradox? From the first time she had switched their cups, to when he readily took anything she had made for him, his face had been stone to anyone else, but not her. Ever since she was small, she had the ability to feel a person's intentions, rather they be good, or bad. Rather or not it was a heightened awareness to a person's body language or an ability that magic given her she did not know, but either way she was grateful to be able to see into this closed off man who she so admired. The man in front of her was good, but he had many things he hid from the people around him, and Hermione was determined to help his poor tortured soul through it all.

"You ready, girl?" he asked, pulling her from her thoughts as he placed his hands on her shoulders.

"Ready," she smiled up at him, going to her dad for a hug only to have him pick her up squealing into his big arms, her feet swinging a good few feet in the air. "I love you, Daddy."

"I love you too, baby." His voice sounded suspiciously thick in her ear as her mother came up to hug her from behind.

Hermione turned back to Severus once her parents put her back on her feet, grabbing ahold of his pale hand that engulfed hers entirely, feeling it tighten slightly and then they were being squeezed through a very narrow tube.

"You know we can not be like this at the school, yes?" he asked the girl who refused to let go of his hand as they walked through the muggle part of the train station. Drawing more than a few glances, the big scary man and the little girl wadded their way through the throngs of people.

"I know," she replied, already feeling a sense of loss as she looked up to his tall figure before latching herself back around his waist, burying her face into the engraved buttons she couldn't seem to ever pull herself away from. Tears were prickling at her eyes. "I won't get into Slytherin." She could smell his potions ingredients that seemed to be a part of his very skin.

"I know," he agreed, knowing the Sorting Hat wouldn't put a muggleborn girl into a nest full of vipers. "But you still have all the qualities, nurture them. They may help you later in life."

With those words, Hermione let go of the man she had become attached to and saw his mask over take his face as he waved her in front of him into the tunnel and disapparated away from her view once again.

When Hermione finally got settled into the train and sat herself into the window seat in an empty compartment, she pulls out one of her many books from her cloak. So engrossed as she was in it and her thoughts, she never heard the compartment door open to reveal a platinum blond boy enter and sit on the opposite seat. Finally finishing her novel, she looks up to the boy who had been staring at her the whole time.

She blinked, "Hello."

He blinked back, "Are you a Mudblood?"

"That's not a very nice word," she replied, recognizing the word from when Severus told her of the Pureblood supremacists and the war. He didn't like talking about it much, so she didn't like asking about it.

"That's what my parents tell me to call muggleborns. You are aren't you?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

She copied him, "Yes. But the word Mudblood means dirty blood. What exactly does it mean to have dirty blood? All of us have some sort of magic."

He looked puzzled, "I don't know." He changed subjects after a long pause, "Uncle Severus dropped you off at the platform." It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

"I'm Draco Malfoy."

"Hermione Granger." She shook his outstretched hand.

~.O.~

"Gryffindor!" the Sorting Hat yelled, his rim being pulled from Hermione's eyes as she stepped off the stool.

Hermione should have been completely ecstatic at finally being sorted into a part of the castle she had spent months dreaming and reading about, and she was, but it seemed to be a sort of muted up to Hogwarts had been so beautiful with the water under the boat glistening as magical creatures lit up underneath, flashes of scales shimmering as Merpeople leaped over the children's heads. The whole castle was just right out of a fairytale as well, and the inside was only that much more with it's sparkling night sky overhead in the Great Hall. Hermione could see all sorts of constellations mixed in with the purples, blues, and grays at dinner, and now was a palace of sourceless blue and yellow light. Severus had told her she might end up in Gryffindor for all the audacity she had in her tiny little body or maybe Ravenclaw with her keen mind, but she had nurtured a secret hope that maybe her guile would get her into Slytherin. It was an empty hope though, she knew it wouldn't happen.

Looking across the table to where the red- headed boy she had met on the train after Draco had left her to help a boy who had lost his toad, she couldn't help the disgust that filled her as he talked with his mouth full to Harry Potter who sat next to him. Harry wasn't at all who she had expected. _The- Boy- Who- Lived_. He was skinny, with a head of black messy hair, and the same glittering eyes as she herself had when she had first seen all the new magic around her. Currently though, they were filled with confusion, and another emotion she couldn't quite place as he looked to the Professor's table on the dias. He was looking at Severus, and Severus was looking back with an indecipherable look as well, his mouth set in a tight light. His eyes flicked to hers for a moment, his head seeming to bow in a minute nod that you could see only if you were looking for it.

Hermione bowed her head to hide her grin. _He's not going to ignore me!_ She admits, she's become a bit attached. Just a little.

..

It was finally time for class. Potions being one of her last after a full day of Transfiguration and Charms, she had been excited to see her favorite teacher in his element all day, but she had a very strong inkling that he wasn't going to be the same as he was when they were on their own. Or rather, very strong hearing concerning older years talking of his horrible temper and personality. She was right. His class decorated with strangely odd things to look at fascinated her still though even if certain posters did seem to be better suited for Defense Against the Dark Arts, as did their owner.

The door loudly banging into the wall startled everyone into silence, and her Professor entered the room closing the blinds by pointing his wand to them, kicking up dust that tickled her nose mixed with the spices in the cold air. Gliding to the front of the class and crossing his arms as he sat on the edge of his desk with his cold eyes roaming over his new students, they paused on Hermione momentarily who sat alone in the half of the class where the Gryffindors took up beside the clustered Slytherins. She barely kept her lips from twitching up in a smile.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began in his deep baritone, already the class was paying full attention to him knowing that he would expect nothing less. "As there is little foolish wand waving in this class, many of you will hardly believe there is magic in the concoctions you will brew. I don't expect you to fully appreciate the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death- if only you will open your minds to it." He sounded so enamored with the subject that Hermione was on the edge of her seat, so engrossed in his little speech nothing could have turned her attention away from him.

"Let's begin." He pointed his wand to the blackboard where his elegant script sprawled across the blackness, a loopy art all on it's own.

~.O.~

That was the highlight of her day, and she had greatly missed the spicy smelling classroom by the time flying started with Madame Hooch. Hermione had never liked heights, but these lessons were mandatory for first years, and was just like any other class she thought. She botched it.

She was standing in between Draco and Harry when Madame Hooch asked everyone to try and float a few feet from the ground after they had summoned their brooms from the grass. Hermione gulped as she swung her leg on either side of the small stick that was supposed to hold them in the air, she closed her eyes for a moment to try and steady her breathing.

"Hermione?" Draco asked from the corner of his mouth, seeing her wobbling in the air and trying not to be heard talking to a Muggleborn in front of others of his house.

"Alright, Miss. Granger?" Madame Hooch asked her as she came to her in the survey of her students.

Hermione was on the verge of tears, "I'm afraid of heights, Madame Hooch."

"You can come down then, go to Madame Pomfrey for a calming draught if you'd like," she replied, quickly getting distracted by Neville who had actually fallen from his broom and was holding his red wrist up. "Mr. Longbottom!"

Hermione came down to her feet as her hands shook, and wiped her tears, all the while hiding her face in her bushy curls as she overheard low laughter coming from Harry and Ron.

"I'm surprised she hasn't got a book in that bloody stack of hers to help," Ron told Harry and Dean, sniggering.

Her breath caught in her throat as she fought a sob, _why don't they like me? What did I do to make them hate me so much?_ Tears now blurred her vision as she dropped her broom and quickly made her way back into the castle, trying to make it seem as if she wasn't running. Two pairs of green and grey eyes following her the whole way.

Harry turned away from Hermione's retreating form back to Ron, "I think she heard you." And then Ron felt a pulling sensation on his leg as he toppled off his own broom, Draco's smirk widening as the rest of the class laughed at his reddening face.

~.O.~

"Pavarti, have you seen Hermione?" Harry asked the dark skinned girl who sat laughing with her Ravenclaw twin, he saw her face turn to his concern when he asked his question.

"No," she said, "I saw her in the bathroom earlier but she was crying and told me to go away."

Now he felt even worse, knowing that if she had been alone this whole time they really must have hurt her feelings.

"Thanks."

Turning to where Ron was stuffing his face, as usual, he was just about to suggest that they apologize to the small girl when their queer Professor Quirrell ran into the Great Hall, "Troll! In the dungeon!" he yelled, a mask of terror written across his face, "Thought you ought to know," and then promptly fainted.

Harry's first thought was that Hermione didn't know, and that he was mental to be going right at the thing that even everyone was screaming about. "What are you doing? Are you _mad?_ You're going right at the bloody thing!" he heard vaguely from Ron who was running behind him, contrary to his own words.

"Hermione doesn't know!" he yelled back to him, and then bumped into a large black figure at the steps leading down to the dungeons, knocking the breath out of him as Ron followed his example into his back.

"Potter, Weasley," the figure drawled high above their heads, "Did you not hear the Headmaster? You are to follow your house prefects to the dormitories. Now."

Harry got his breath back, scarcely recognizing the scorn he was faced with in his panic, "Professor! Hermione's been in the bathroom all afternoon and she doesn't know about the troll!"

Harry saw something spark in the big man's eyes, but it disappeared as soon as it popped up. "I will deal with her. Follow your housemates to your dormitory."

And he was gone in a flurry of billowing robes, leaving the two boys to gape at him until they were picked up slightly from their feet by their collars by Professor McGonagall and pushed in the direction they were told to go.


	3. 1st Year Part Two

" _True love is like playing chess. A boy plays and is always afraid of losing his queen, and a girl risks everything just to protect her king."_

~.O.~

As a troll made it's way through the halls of Hogwarts Hermione sat in a dark corner of the bathroom, the rough stone cutting deep grooves into the bare skin of her thighs where her skirt had ridden up, the lanterns floating by occasionally lighting the blurry stall around her. Ron was exactly like the children had been in her muggle school, mean and cruel, but her mum had always said they were jealous and she had chosen to believe her then in an act of self denial. She didn't think so now, but that was what she was trying to tell herself as her mother's words floated through her head.

 _Sev likes me,_ she told her tears, and she giggled for talking to herself within an empty bathroom.

Unlatching the wooden door, she stepped out in front of the talking mirror. "Alright now dearie?" the mirror asked her, the faint outline of a woman coming into view, "Sometimes it's good to have a little cry. Can't keep it all bottled up or else you'll have a nervous breakdown right in the middle of lessons, then you can expect to blow something up from all those young emotions."

Hermione giggled once more at the woman's words, her lips curling upwards as she rinsed her face with cold water to try and make her red rimmed eyes less noticeable.

_As if anyone would notice anyway._

"I'm alright now, thank you."

She suddenly heard loud banging steps lumbering down the hall, making the floor and walls rumble and the water in the basin to ripple. Trying very hard not to scream as a ten foot troll came into view, she apparently didn't succeed very well as he came swaggering into the bathroom and his yellow eyes immediately turned to her small form at her feet.

..

Severus' worries were confirmed as he heard a shrill shriek echoing through the hall from the girl's restroom, and the sound of shattering wood pieces and glass. Running the extra few feet he had, the girl he had come to care for cowering in front of the large creature came into view as his long strides brought him closer. His mind focused on those red rimmed caramel eyes full of terror, he swirled his wand in an arc above his head, and defeated the troll in one motion of flurried robes and roars.

"Hermione," his voice was loud in the sudden silence of the troll's fall, lain feet from the girl he was now crouched in front of. He was barely aware of the other Professors coming into view underneath the open doorway as he got an armful of small curly headed girl.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she wailed into his neck, not entirely sure of what she was apologizing for. All that mattered was burying herself into the familiar spicy smelling robes and not letting go as her shaking dispersed.

"Quit your apologizing girl," he answered in her ear, wrapping his arms around her waist and hoisting her up into his arms like a babe with it's arms and legs twined round him like a monkey.

She said nothing as they passed the other gaping professors and Headmaster, keeping her limbs wrapped securely around him until she had calmed. Even long after they had arrived in the hospital wing and Severus had settled her down with a big hand running through her curls, he refused to leave her until she ceased all signs of shaking.

~.O.~

Madame Pomfrey had insisted that Hermione stay in the hospital wing for the night to make sure her nerves were calm, despite her protests that she was fine now that Severus had allowed her to inhale his soothing scent to assuage her fears.

"Want some Hermione?" Neville was shy, but he was a sweet boy. Not at all like the mean ones like Ron. He held out a chocolate frog he had said Harry and Ron dropped off earlier along with some other candies, "My Nan says chocolate makes everything better."

Hermione grinned a little at that as she took the vibrating frog box, but it fell flat when she saw the other boys in question come into view, looking slightly out of breath and disheveled, "Thanks Neville. I think she's right." She kept her head down as the boys talked to each other and read the card…

" _Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood and his work on complex alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel."_

"Nicolas Flamel," she whispered, biting into the dark chocolatey goodness of the squirming frog. "Ah, the Philosopher's Stone." She had read about his hundred of years old life in a book Severus had lent her during the summer.

"Um, Hermione?" she heard the hesitant voice of Harry Potter say from the side of her cot. She looked up and saw the tall boys looking down to her pajama clad body, Ron looking a little reluctant as Harry nudged him, whispering, " _Go on, Ron!"_

He pasted a smile on his face, "I'm sorry for what I said earlier, 'Mione," he said, shortening her name. "It was pointed out to me that it might of come out a little insensitive."

Hermione's eyebrow lifted at his choice of words, _pointed out to me._

"Friends?" Harry asked hastily, as if she would change her mind if she had a second to think about it.

She smiled at him, knowing she wouldn't expect much from Ron anytime soon but could see Harry at least had some modicum of sensitivity laying in the boy's head of his, "Friends." she agreed, shaking his outstretched hand.

~.O.~

It was the first Quidditch game of the year, and everyone cheered in the House' stands, their breath sending up clouds up into the cold air. Hermione had always thought it was a bit early to start segregating children into different houses when they first arrived at Hogwarts she thought idly looking from sea of house color to house color, they tend to change as they get older and know who they are as a person.

"Go Harry!" People screamed around her as the boy in question started after the Golden Snitch, Hermione getting an earful as well from the half- giant beside her. She shuddered as she watched how fast each of the players went around the pitch, knowing she could never stand to be that high within the air going upside down and all around in order to win something as trivial as a game. Granted it was a way to promote house unity, it also had a very high rate of bludger to the face related injuries that knocked you twenty feet down to the ground. Rubbing her ear on the side that Hagrid had screamed into, she thought back to the first time she had seen Hagrid, her first thought of him being he resembled a big teddy covered in all that hair he seemed to never brush, and that he was the most trusting person she had ever met which she wasn't sure was such a good thing.

"Bloody hell!" Ron cursed from her other side, and Hermione immediately saw what was going to happen as her eyes immediately flew to where she last saw Harry. "Someone's jinxing his broom!"

Harry had dodged a Bludger that had just soared past his head when his broom gave a sudden, frightening lurch. Even as he held on tight as the broom was determined to shake him off, it began to roll, and jerk, and twist around and around, just as Hermione's fears projected onto her new friend. Hermione ran her eyes over the crowd, pausing on Severus who was mouthing something while looking at Harry, Professor Quirrell doing the same above him. A chill slithering through her body as if ice had been poured over her as goosebumps raised the hair on her arms. She knew something had felt wrong around him once he had begun paying her more attention once Severus had taken her from the bathroom during the troll incident just weeks ago.

"Its-" she tugged on Ron's sleeve, but he apparently saw the two Professors as well.

"Snape!" his voice turned hateful towards the wrong man.

"It's Professor Quirrell, Ron!" she tried in vain to tell the boys as they walked with Hagrid back to the castle. After Harry had been stabled on his broom he caught the Snitch, but Hermione's attention was back on Severus who had met her eyes and mouthed _later_ before he got up and followed a furious Professor Quirrell.

"Rubbish!" Hagrid interrupted their argument, "Why would either of the professors' do something like that?"

"Because we saw Snape come limping out of the room with the three- headed dog in it, that's why!" Harry blurted out in his temper, having agreed that the stuttering professor couldn't possibly have anything to do with trying to hurt a student.

"Three- headed- dog?" Hermione asked, confused as Harry turned to her and blushed.

"Hallowe'en," Ron told her out of the corner of his mouth just as Hagrid asked, "How do you know about Fluffy?"

" _Fluffy?"_

Hagrid was the one blushing now, "Yeah- he's mine- bought him off a Greek chappie I met in the pub las' year- I leant him to Dumbledore to guard the-"

"So he is guarding something," Harry exclaimed triumphant.

"Now listen to me righ' now," he said gruffly, getting redder in the face by the minute. "Yer meddlin' in something you have no business meddlin' in. You forget 'bout that dog, an' what it's guarding, that's strictly between Nicolas Flamel and Professor Dumbledore." he stomped off towards his hut.

"Who's Nicolas Flamel?" Harry and Ron asked at the same time, turning to Hermione for the answers. As usual.

"He's the owner of the Philosopher's Stone," she replied, masking her emotions off her face as well as any of those within her rival House.

_Why would any sane person guard a precious one of a kind immortality stone within a castle full of young witches and wizards?_

~.O.~

 _Later_ didn't come until Christmas break, and she was so excited she almost knocked him down her hug was so fierce. Her parents were disappointed of course to not have her for the whole break, but consented to her keeping Severus company at Hogwarts as long as he had allowed himself into being roped into their tradition of going to a theater play a few days before the end of Yule. He had initially sneered at the request, but gave into Hermione's doe eyed pleading. The boys had stayed at Hogwarts as well, but they had taken her library excuse on Christmas Day with rolled eyes and a resigned ' _see you later,'_ knowing nothing could pry her from her books for even a day. Severus hadn't approved of her making friends with them she could see as the first time they grouped together in Potions from his raised eyebrow, but she knew he wouldn't say anything as long as she was happy and not crying in bathrooms or deserted hallways anymore.

"Do you do your absolute best to cut off blood circulation to my legs anytime you can?" he asked with his signature raised brow, his obsidian eyes that inspired fear into the hearts of others boring into her dancing ones.

"Yep," she said, popping the 'P' as she let go bouncing on her heels. "Can we go now?"

Severus lifted his eyes to the hall behind the small girl and checked to see if the children and Professors remaining between the holidays were still inside the Great Hall. "Let's go."

She took his hand like always and asked him the question that had been nagging at her for the few weeks since the Quidditch match, "Are you helping the Headmaster hide the Philosopher's stone for Nicolas Flamel?" She asked it with her childlike curiosity that could hide anything she wanted, but she knew that her Slytherin- like tendencies Severus had told her to keep hold of wouldn't work on the Potions master and therefore opted for her Gryffindor bluntness.

Severus paused his silent feet to stare down at her just as Draco rounded the corner, "Happy Yule, Draco." Hermione smiled to him, knowing she would never have done otherwise in the presence of anyone else other than the man whose hand had tightened slightly round her's.

"Merry Yule, Hermione, Uncle," he replied, giving the latter a confused look as his eyes flickered to Hermione who gave nothing away and continued on, knowing he was interrupting something as he also glanced briefly around their joined hands.

"Draco," Severus said as well, briefly nodding at the blonde boy before continuing on with Hermione in silence, contemplating his answer to her question until they got into his private potions lab after clueing Hermione's blood into his wards.

"Do those dunderheads know too?" He gave her his answer within the forming of his own question.

"Don't be mean, Severus. They saw you coming out of the room with Fluffy in it," she grabbed the ingredients he required for his potion before sitting in front of his brewing table on the high stool, carefully watching his elegant hands work, looking up to his face as he gave an undignified snort along with a black scowl.

"Bloody dog should be called _Slobber_ is what he should be," he grumbled about the three- headed Cerberus, giving her moonstone to crush.

She giggled, knowing he wasn't cross with her knowledge so much as the boys'. Hermione watched her professor's movements closely, each one being for a purpose she could see. Rather he was picking up an ingredient, giving her one to chop or grind, but other than that he stood perfectly still. Like a statue with a black blemish on his pale left forearm that had been exposed once he had shed his frock and rolled up his white sleeves.

The first time Severus had told her about the Dark Lord and his goals, she was horrified. She thought that witches and wizards were a peaceful people as opposed to muggles who dealt in guns and other violent warfare, but that was her childish naivety she saw now even as she still recognized she still was a child. The only difference was that the wizards had the advantage of magic, and the man in front of her had more than a normal wizard which had made him too perfect a weapon to whichever side of the war he chose to give his loyalty to. He hadn't told her certain things she knew, like his complete reason for joining the Death Eaters, but she knew enough and she wouldn't pry. One time she made the mistake of asking what he had to do, and he had gotten this look on his face and she knew then that he hated himself for what was required of him, so she did what she did best. Hugged the life out of him, pushing all the affection she had grown for him in such a short time and hoped he would never get that look on his face again. He had said she was too young to hear such things, tugged on one of her loose plaits, and sent her off to get herself some ice cream.

She was just grateful that he told her as much as he had, knowing that even her parents who treated her as an older young woman than her age wouldn't have given her as many details about such a gruesome time in history that he had.

"I can hear the wheels turning in your head, girl," he said, yanking her out of her thoughts, smirking, "Spit it out."

"You weren't even looking at me," she chastised him lightly, knowing he could feel her thinking from across the room with his back turned. "I think Professor Quirrell is trying to get the Stone."

He paused in his brewing, glancing up to look at her through his thick eyelashes, and then continued, "Why?"

"I saw him at the Quidditch game when Harry's broom started going weird," she bit her lip, "And he doesn't feel right. It's like a cloud surrounds him."

"Stay away from him outside of classes," he told her, putting his cauldron to simmer for a few hours and then rising to put away his ingredients.

As his back is turned, Hermione pulls a shiny silver square box out of her school robes and holds it out to him as he comes back from organizing the last of his brewing table, "Happy Yule, Sev."

He stared at her for a moment, and then the box for two, and pulled out an identical one in gold from his own, "Happy Yule, girl."

She wouldn't open her present until he opened his, and so he rolled his eyes as she bit her lip in worry that she didn't have something more special to give to him. A lot of thought had gone into the bracelet she had made for him, and it wasn't easy. On a thin cuff, a Goblin made iron disc the size of a quarter sat nestled inside the durable leather, a calligraphic _S_ engraved by Hermione's wand as well as the words _Love Always_ carved into the inside that touched his wrist. He said nothing as she gently took it from him to lace the four strings together, securing it with a permanent sticking charm only he could sever.

She was getting anxious, almost hopping on her feet, "Do you like?" she asked, seeing him run his long fingers over the smooth disc. "I put some protective charms into it. Mum gave me the idea- she gave Daddy a Hindu protective necklace a few years ago, it wasn't real of course but I thought that since I have magic I can use it to protect you now. And you can add more to it if you want."

"Why would you think I need protection Hermione?" he asked.

"Because the Dark Lord will be back, and another baby isn't going to be around to weaken him again." She told him, refusing to say _Voldemort_ as he had told her his Dark Mark burned even now, so many years later as when he was still at full power.

He just stared at her worried face, his eyes abnormally softer than normal with a ghost of a smile on his lips contradicting his swirling eyes, "Your turn."

She smiled in relief and blushed with his praise, squealing a bit as he raised her up back on her stool and picked up his gift he urged towards her once more, "I love presents!"


	4. 1st Year Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: As I am sure people know what The Trace is on an underage witch or wizard, for the sake of this story it will be changed from the Ministry being notified if a spell is made within the vicinity of an underage child to a spell being cast with a particular wand. Meaning: The law of The Trace regarding underage wizardry has been changed to an alarm being put on the actual wand of an individual that tells of illegal spells being cast outside of the age of adulthood with the underage witch/wizard's wand- rather than on the overall vicinity of the child.

" _To love a person is to see all their magic, and to remind them of it when they have forgotten."_

~.O.~

"My baby!" Mrs. Granger spun her only daughter around as soon as her husband had put her down from his own turn at twirling her around in the air.

"Mummy!" Hermione squealed as her arms wrapped around her mother's neck, her vision blurry beneath her lashes.

After only a few months into the school year, the Grangers' had felt the absence of their only daughter within their once life filled house. She was always a happy child bouncing around their feet, following them around wherever they went, and they missed having their little shadow under foot and talking about the newest book she had begun. They were glad to see Hogwarts hadn't dumbed down her personality any as they had known the first few weeks were hard on their girl as she had trouble making friends when she was so shy. And the other children would most likely find her very different from themselves, even in the magical community. But this was a worry they shared only with each other that was happy to be proven wrong as she began writing letters mentioning a Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Neville Longbottom in addition to Severus. Who she still insisted on calling his given name despite him now in the position of her Professor.

Hermione had been talking a mile a minute since Severus had apparated onto their doorstep with her hand wrapped into his, but she stopped abruptly.

_Thank God for Severus. At least she had him to keep her spirits up in those weeks, but children need others their age to talk to and grow with._

"C'mon, Severus," she pulled his arm until she had brought him to the couches her parents had sat on when she realized he was hovering in the background, and she wouldn't allow that at all.

When the man had first come into their home with their daughter's Headmaster, they had thought he had looked very… striking in all his back frock that had given him more of a priestly impression than a Professor. He was a very quiet man with a face that would scare anyone away with it's seemingly permanent scowl framed by his long shiny hair. Now though, all they cared about was how he accommodated their little girl so well, and how his face was now softer compared to those previous months when they were still getting to know each other. Even if he did look like a giant seated next to her petite frame.

"Love, maybe we should all get dressed. We need to leave in about an hour and a half if we want to make it to the opening."

"Alright Mummy," Hermione hopped off the sofa as Severus rose beside her, giving him a quick hug before grabbing her mother's hand and skipping up the stairs.

"The girls are changing in Hermione's room," Mr. Granger told the quiet man who had not said a word since he came into the house, "We can use mine and Sheila's." He said as they drained the last of their tea.

The dark man nodded.

The men could hear giggles coming from behind the purple door across the hall as Mark got his suit out of his closet, and Severus enlarged his from his robe pocket. They had not said much to each other, but it was not an entirely awkward silence though Mark felt like he had to say something to the man who had been looking after his daughter these last few months. Looking over to the man in question he stopped short, and quickly glanced away, his thoughts flying from his head. Severus Snape was a man of many mysteries to the people he didn't let into his life, and Mark now felt as if he had seen one he shouldn't have.

"That's a very pretty necklace, lovie," Sheila told her daughter as she ran shining oil throughout the caramel curls she had inherited from her mother.

Hermione's smile could shame the sun as she fingered the small white pearl nestled in the hollow of her throat, "Sev gave it to me for Yule, Mum."

"It doesn't have a clasp," her mother's pale fingers ran over the gold chain.

"He said it's tradition for parents or a mentor to give a new witch a pearl to help store our excess magic, and it can help to replenish our magical cores once enough has been stored inside."

"That was nice of him," Sheila smoothed Hermione's ankle length green dress down a final time. "All done."

Hermione immediately rushes into her parent's room, "Hermione!" Her mother scolds, knowing she had just forgotten her manners for a while wanting to show the men her dress.

Sheila stumbles to a stop in the doorway, her hand making it's way up to cover her painted mouth as she sees the scars covering the man who was currently smiling slightly at Hermione's twirling.

"Sheils," Mark came to her side fully dressed as he kissed her cheek. "You see it right?" he whispers lightly in her ear as he pulled back to watch their daughter as well.

She nods as tears pricked at her eyes. From what she could see from his open shirt, Severus had thin silvery white cross scars covering his lean chest, a large burn disappearing under the fabric covering high on his stomach in the style of pant from those of the older centuries, and a trail of cigarette burns in a seemingly random pattern across his left collarbone and shoulders.

"Hermione didn't even blink," her husband said lowly as they watched their daughter help button up those scars and hide the man's secrets behind a black veil. "I think she already knew."

The small girl now had her hands on her hips, and Mark and Sheila immediately recognized her battle stance along with the furrow between her brows. They assumed Severus' was his arms crossing his chest as they were doing right now. He apparently knew what was coming too. What Hermione sets out to get, she doesn't back down till she gets it.

"It's all black, Severus." she said, deadpan.

"It's a muggle suit, Hermione," his first words of the night in the same tone as the little girl's who stood on the bed sizing him up.

"You can't wear an outdated muggle suit and call it a compromise Severus when all of it's still all black! You need color!"

"It's a compromise if I changed from my usual clothing, girl. That's the definition of a compromise."

"Can I at least change your shirt to green?" She gave him the big shiny puppy eyes, just as he rolled his own.

"Fine."

"Yay!" she took his wand nimbly out of his robes and taped it to the black shirt, and they each etched as the dark color melted away to a slightly shimmery dark green to match her glittery shoes. Giggling she throws her arms around his neck and kisses his cheek, and he slides her to the ground next to her now smiling parents, gently yanking one of her loose curls that had already escaped the high bun Sheila had wrangled both their wild hair into.

..

Hermione had fallen asleep on Severus' shoulder in the back seat of her parent's car with both her skinny arms wrapped around his left arm, but she could vaguely hear when he and her parents began speaking softly.

"Did you like the show, Severus?" she heard her mother ask him quietly so as not to wake her.

"It was very nice," his deep voice rumbled through his chest and she turned her face in, pulling her dangling feet up on the leather seat so that her legs crossed over her Sev's.

"Have you ever been before?"

He paused a moment, "No. My parents were not particularly the type of people who should have had children in the first place, Mrs Granger. We barely had enough money for food let alone a trip to see The Nutcracker." Hermione's hands found his and squeezed, his own tightening in answer. "And I have not had the pleasure of having anyone to go with so I have never gotten around to it."

"We do it every year if you would like to come with us again?"

"Yes." Hermione said sleepily, her mouth quirking as low laughter filled the car.

"The princess has spoken," Mark said, looking into the rearview mirror to see his daughter cuddling up to the large man who clearly loved her, and wasn't afraid to advertise it to certain people.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger had never thought they would have a daughter as special as they one that had had, and they couldn't think of anyone better to watch after her than the man whose eyes expressed everything that he masked from his face.

"Goodnight, Sev," she said in his neck as he laid her in her purple sheeted bed.

"Goodnight, Hermione," he replied, tucking the sheets in around her after transforming her shiny clothing into a nightdress.

"I love you."

Severus froze where he was rising from his crouch beside her as an emotion rose within his throat that he had thought he had only felt for one other person in the world when he had been a child himself, one that had been long dead.

He kissed her forehead, his lips lingering to smell her clean scent and whisper, "I love you too, my girl."

~.O.~

"Hermione!" Harry spun the girl around in a circle, lifting her off her feet slightly. "I missed you so much!"

"Harry!" she laughed, then put her hand on her tiny hips once she was back on firm ground, "You need help with your potions essay again don't you?"

"Yep."

She rolled her eyes and pushed her arm through his, "C'mon. To the library we go. Where's Ron?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Weasley wanted him home for the last of the break, his brother decided to come home for the holidays after all."

"I'm not writing it for you, Harry," Hermione told him after only a few minutes of the boy only staring at his paper, up to her, then back down to his paper.

"Please?"

"Professor Snape knows how I write, you really think he's going to believe you wrote a two foot long paper on the effects of crushed moonstone?"

"No," he pouted.

"Nope."

As they were leaving, it was pretty close to curfew and they were the last ones left in the dark hallways when Harry suddenly grabbed her hand and pulled her in the opposite direction of Gryffindor tower.

"I want to show you something," he told her as they passed a deserted hall, "C'mon." He guided her through the dark halls into a room with a very large golden lined mirror.

Inscribed upon the top was _Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi._

The Mirror of Erised. Harry had found the Mirror of Erised.

Hermione's breath caught as Harry was whispering excitedly in her ear, "I found it a couple days ago, I showed Ron but he didn't see them. You see them right, 'Mione? 'Mione?"

Hermione didn't answer him for a moment, too captivated by what she was seeing in her reflection, "No Harry, it's called the Mirror of Erised. It shows you the thing you most want in the world."

They sat on the floor, becoming captivated by their reflections for what seemed like hours rather than mere minutes.

"You should go up Harry," she told him after he yawned for the third time. "I'll be up in a few minutes."

"Alright, night 'Mione," he hugged her shoulders and briefly touched the mirror with a finger, a sad glint in his eye before he disappeared under his newly acquired cloak. A dark shadow took his place beside her not too long after.

He was quiet for a moment, "What do you see, girl?"

She smiled, even after all this time he still refused to call her anything other than 'girl,' as if by refusing to say her name he was allowing himself even the illusion of emotional distance from her that he had thrown out of the window the day he had shown up on her doorstep.

"I see us." He looked down at her quizzically. "And your Dark Mark is gone."

He was still looking at her, not saying a thing as she burst into tears moments after her lip started wobbling, and pulled her into his lap.

"What do you see, Severus?" she sniffled, calmed by the hand stroking her curls.

He closed his eyes, and then opened them slowly, his affection for the girl in his arms overwhelming, "I see myself, Hermione."

She was quiet for a moment, merely watching as the vision shifted to simply reflect herself and Severus sitting on the floor.

"Can you promise me something?"

"I will try." He hefted her up into his arms, eager to get away from the thrice damned mirror that gave him the reflection of the very thing Hermione had described.

"Promise you won't ever leave me?" She asked with all the innocence of a child.

"You have my word." he said, knowing that he just might be lying, but hoping, he would never have to break this oath.

The spy, so wrapped up in the small girl he couldn't be bothered to care that the Headmaster's blue eyes watched this private moment between him and the girl, only glancing back long enough to meet them for a millisecond and then gone.

~.O.~

"I swear Harry!" Hermione says exasperated as he continues to go on and on about how Severus is the one after the Philosopher's Stone, and that he heard him threatening Quirrell in the hall just after he had left her to the mirror. "How do you know he's not just pretending to threaten him for information to see if he's the one trying to steal it?"

He paused in his tirade, looking as if he was really thinking about the possibility, but then all reason faded as the stubborn tilt to his chin raised up as it always did when he was set on something, "He's evil, Hermione." Then he walked ahead of her and knocked on Hagrid's hut door.

Hermione threw her arms up, "Boys!"

_Morganna help me!_

"Harry, Hermione," Hagrid greeted them, shuffling in front his smouldering fire, "What're ye doin' here?"

"What are you hiding Hagrid?" Hermione asked curiously, trying to peek around his big frame as she recognized that shifty gaze he got whenever he was trying his hardest at hiding something.

He blocked her before she could see what was in the pot he held above the flames, "Nothin.'" He said, but the rumbling of the cauldron contradicted his words.

Hermione raised an eyebrow, "We won't tell anyone Hagrid. We promise."

He sighed, resigned,"Oh, alrigh.'"

"Oh." She breathed as the half- giant put a large black egg egg with carvings of ridged scales upon the shell on the table in front of her and Harry.

"Is that a dragon egg?" Harry asked, trying to poke at the now clicking oval. Hermione slapped his hand away.

"Yea," Hagrid puffed his chest up, seeming proud. "Won it off a stranger in the pub las' nigh.' Look! It's hatching!"

The clicking noise grew louder as cracks lined the sides, then a scraping noise split it into pieces as the baby dragon flopped out of its own makeshift womb onto the wooden table.

"Aw!" Hermione laughed, "It's so cute!"

Even though the baby looked like a crumpled black umbrella with it's wings bigger than it's body, and it's snout a little big for it's body, his bright orange eyes blinked tiredly at the new people in front of him and sneezed, allowing smoke to stream out of it's nostrils. Hermione tickled him underneath his little chin as it sighed happily at the attention, flopping down to take a nap with it's head using her other hand as a pillow.

She just wanted to pick it up and squeeze it and love it to death, but instead looked up to the man preening at how his new baby was so cute, "Hagrid, what are you going to do when he gets bigger, and he starts to breath his fire?"

Hagrid started pouting, but eventually Hermione got through to him and persuaded him to tell Dumbledore to where maybe he could visit the little one as he got older. As her and Harry try and hurry into the castle before curfew, they realize they had gotten carried away longer than they thought as they saw Professor McGonagall coming towards them with Neville and Draco being held onto by the neck.

"I knew I should have brought my Invisibility Cloak," Harry muttered next to her.

"Harry, Hermione!" Neville said as soon as they came close enough. "I was trying to find you to warn you, but- "

"Mr. Longbottom!" McGonagall looked ready to breath her own fire as she gave them a good reprimand, and sentenced them detention after exams.

..

As they walk to the Forbidden Forest behind Filch, Hermione refrained from rubbing her arms at the chill working through her body that had nothing to do with the light snow falling around them, and grabbed Draco's hand. Harry and Neville were in front of them gripping about going into the forest they were told to stay out of, and even if they broke every rule set to them that was one they wouldn't. Although, Hermione had been to the edges with Severus picking potions ingredients before, but had no need prior to that to go right in as there were plenty supplies on the outskirts. The only thing that eased her nerves a bit was that she wasn't alone and maybe she could find some more that had grown further in.

"Are you alright?" the blonde asked, giving her hand a light squeeze.

"We shouldn't be out here, it doesn't feel right."

Hagrid paired Neville and Draco together, to which Neville whimpered and Draco scowled, and Harry and Hermione together with Fang.

"Don' go too far, and send up sparks when ye fin' somethin'." Hagrid told them.

"I love Hagrid," Hermione said, hopping over a overturned tree, "But sometimes he makes some really poor decisions."

"You got that right." Harry said, getting farther ahead of her but Hermione saw the unicorn blood they were told to look for and pausd by it, not noticing him getting further out of sight nor the shadow steadily creeping closer from the darkness.

Before Hermione could yell for Harry, she saw the figure slithering over the dead leaves littering the ground that sounded like a gliding cloak rather than the typical crackle and crunch of a man's boots absorbing their heavy weight. She screamed loudly as her eyes widened in terror, a terrifyingly scared shriek that caused birds to scatter through the trees and something to screech in reply in the distance. All she saw was the figure gliding closer to her, hissing coming from the darkness of the cowled head, and in the distance the sound of her name being called. But all she could do was stand frozen with her wand held tightly at her side.

Then she was engulfed in a familiar scent and being picked up off her feet as the soothing voice tried to calm her furious shaking. Clinging to his neck and sobbing into it in a very familiar way that seemed to happen all too much since classes started at Hogwarts, all Hermione seemed to think was…

_Those robes looked very dramatic when floating in the air, is it some sort of charm and people like Severus just seem to know it once they decide on floaty robes?_

The scream chilled the other boys to the bone, much as Hermione had been one they had begun their adventure into the woods,and they all ran toward the girl but didn't expect to find Severus Snape holding her aloft and trying to calm the small girl down from her hysterics.

"What happened?" Hagrid thundered up to the two people.

And then he gulped as well as the younger boys as if he were not years older than the absolutely furious Potions Master's who had a deadly looking scowl decorating his face.

~.O.~

"Bloody hell!" Ron said to Hermione and Harry once Harry had gotten through telling him about everything that had happened before he got back. "Why does everything fun happen when I'm gone?"

"Stop, Ron," Harry whispered to the redhead, glancing over to Hermione who was looking the other way and looking as if she was miles away.

Ron was absolutely oblivious.

The incident in the forest had changed her as if she had nothing more to say to the people around her who she had previously talked the ears off, and it had changed Harry's view of Snape even if just a small bit. He had seen the way Hermione had clung to the hated Professor he frequently said was evil, as well as the way the man who never yelled more than raising his voice across the class had to try and keep his voice from raving at Hagrid. Maybe she was right about him, but Harry wouldn't tell Ron that.

The floating stair they were on suddenly came to a stop to the door leading to the third floor corridor in which the boys had seen Fluffy in those months ago, and Ron took off yelling that it was cracked open.

"Ron!" Harry and Hermione whisper yelled, not knowing if anyone was still in the room. They came up behind him and peeked through the crack, seeing that Fluffy was asleep, and a trapdoor underneath him was open. The boys ran into the room with Hermione yelling after them for a moment before giving up and following them, knowing before she could get a professor they would already have gotten them in some sort of trouble.

"Boys," she muttered, "Never thinking through things before going straight into something with no plan."

Fluffy's large eyes opened, and the room echoed with his growls before Hermione found a flute on the ground and played it until they dropped once again.

"Nice," Harry commented as they sneaked under the big slobbery puppy.

"Thanks," she said, although she felt the same feeling as before they had gone into the forest, and she really didn't want to go down into the black hole that was the open door. " _Lumos maxima_." It was too dark to see anything. "Harry, you go first and see what's at the bottom and light your wand so we can see."

He jumped, "It's some kind of plant. It's grabbing at my legs." His wand was only a pinprick of light at the bottom of the black.

After getting past the Devil's Snare as well the flying silver and golden keys, they came to the wizard's chess board, and that was when Hermione knew for certain that it was all a game. The Philosopher's Stone should have never been put beneath a school in the first place, even if it was the safest one in the world. The obstacles to get to the chess board, they were things just three young children could get through, and they were weak at best.

_How could it stop a fully grown wizard with years and years of knowledge who sought out the prize that would eventually come from this ridiculous gambit?_

The chamber was so dark that they could see nothing, up until they stepped onto the board and the torches along the walls lit themselves in a blinding light. They were on the white side, facing the intimidatingly featureless black chessmen

"Let's play." Ron said, and that was the last they said before their white knight was taken by the black bishop and dragged off the board, leading to and ending where Hermione was the one to be dragged off the board by the black queen.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Harry and Ron's faces were a blur in front of her, and her head was pounding.

"Be careful, Harry," she whispered, "You're only a boy."

~.O.~

Harry woke to the sound of whispering to his right, his head still groggy from being knocked out by He- Who- Must- Not- Be- Named. Even moving his head slightly felt like a knife to the skull from where he fell on the stone steps after Voldemort had disappeared in a screaming black smoke, his head bouncing straight off the sharp edge.

Hermione was sitting up and talking to someone sitting in the shadows beside her bed.

"It was too easy to get through those tasks," she croaked, and the person gave her the glass of water on her bedside. "Did you know that the Dark Lord was possessing Quirrell?"

"You shouldn't have gone in there, girl," Snape's face came into the moonlight shining through the high window, confusing Harry as to why he was there when McGonagall was their Head of House. "You could have died, I said I was handling it."

"The boys were going in. They would have gotten themselves killed, and you know it." Harry was shocked that their sweet little Hermione was talking back to a teacher, especially to one who had the reputation he did.

"So you decided to get killed alongside them?" he replied in his sardonic tone with the lift of his eyebrow, his voice deeper than usual.

Hermione sighed and Harry could see the arm on her other side move and heard the rustling of her sheets, "I'm sorry"

Harry fell asleep, wondering how Hermione was so familiar with the Slytherin Head of House, and why they would talk about such a thing as _Voldemort,_ a child and a professor talking as equals. The words Quirrell had said to him floated back into his mind…

_There is no good and evil, there is only power._

He remembered what he had told Hermione when they were going to Hagrid's, when he had said Snape was evil, and that Quirrell had seemed afraid of Snape when he had talked of him. Not for the first time did Harry think that maybe Hermione was a better judge of character than him, and it was a given she was more observant than him as it seemed as if he were missing a piece of a very large puzzle eavesdropping on one of his best friends.

He would not remember his friend and the Potion Master's conversation the next morning, but Quirrell's words would stick with him until the day he saw who Hermione and Snape truly were.

Severus squeezed her hand back, "Dumbledore was testing us wasn't he?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I don't know, girl."


	5. 2nd Year Part One

" _What draws people to be friends is that they see the same truth they share it."_

~.O.~

_Summer, Malfoy Manor_

"Hermione, this is Lucius and Narcissa," Severus told the girl hiding halfway behind him and clinging to his waist like a barnacle with one hand.

"Hello," she shyly told the two intimidating blondes, not at all showing her usual uninhibited manner in the face of the two Purebloods who somehow seemed even more intimidating to her than Severus had upon their first meeting.

It was the end of summer between her first and second years, and in only her first year within the magical community everything had changed drastically in Hermione's life. She had been informed that she was one of the few magical beings left in the world, a man who had not let anyone into his life in many years had let her take it and twist it around her finger, and she had made friends with a boy who was the target of a wizard that is now known to be alive. At least to him and a few choice others as the Ministry seemed to be in denial, and remain steadfast in the belief that an infant child defeated a Dark Lord many other grown wizards had failed in bringing to an end.

She had a feeling that these actions would lead her on the course to the rest of her life; with the help of the man that was guiding her to his side by the hand.

"Hello, Hermione," Narcissa smiled down at her, "Draco's in the garden if you want to play with him while we talk to Severus."

The small girl smiled hesitatingly at the tall woman as Draco's father, who had done nothing but stare at her and Severus since they had apparated to their home in front of the iron gate, continued to evaluate her. Gasping silently as she felt a brush of magic prod at her own, she quickly met and averted her eyes from the long haired man to look back up to Severus.

"We'll be out in a minute," he told her, nodding to the clear doors where they could see Draco flying on his broom above the lake that ran through the backyard.

"Who is she to you, Severus?" Lucius asked once the pleasantries were exchanged, lifting an eyebrow at the dark man.

"She is a girl Lucius," is all he would say or admit to anyone other than the girl herself at this point in time.

"She is muggle- born."

"I am well aware of that fact."

The group was quiet for a while as they each watched the kids chasing each other around, Narcissa whispering to her husband, "Tell him, darling."

Severus was the one who now raised the eyebrow, Lucius sighing, "The Dark Lord has given me a task." His hand nonchalantly rested upon a brown leather book with golden writing on the front in the form of a cursive name.

The dark man tensed in surprise at his old friend's words and snapped his obsidian eyes to the pale man's face from where they had glanced down to his calmly placed hand, simply asking, "How strong is he?", knowing they are forbidden to speak of tasks assigned to one another unless told by the Dark Lord.

_Old habits die hard._

"Not very, Severus. As you told me, he has made his presence known only to Potter who informed Dumbledore of that fact due to the incident with the Philosopher's Stone, and his followers will know soon enough once he has gained his strength back. Only those of his marked inner circle know of his rising once again. No doubt those in Azkaban are in an uproar by now," Lucius glances at Narcissa who then lowered her eyes, no doubt thinking of her truly dark imprisoned sister. He pauses before continuing with careful words as he does not know of Severus' true allegiances even after these long years as friends, as well as the new addition of a young muggle- born girl, "Until our Dark Marks have decided upon a course, we will be forever in a state of the unknown, Severus."

"It is steadily growing darker, I am sure you have noticed." Severus asks, referring to the darkening snake and skull marring their left forearm, signifying the rise of their Dark Lord's power once again. Recognizing the underlying meaning of Lucius' words as well, he knew that the Slytherin way of doing things were still in full effect as Lucius asks which side he is on without directly asking outright like a typical Gryffindor. Either the Dark Lord is gone, truly dead, and they are able to live their lives free of outside obligations, or he is alive, well, and able to gift them for _outstanding_ services.

_Choose a side now, Severus. It is that time once again to choose our allegiances. Choose wisely…_

A shadow of a long dead red haired woman dances within Severus' mind, only to be replaced with another muggle- born girl with wild curls who was alive and in need of protection in this moment.

"He will be back, Severus. If we help him. It is inevitable if the others are aware of his rising once again, at the least if we are the first to step up and restore him back to power we will stand in high favor for a time. We have to think about the children now." Narcissa says with a sad smile as she watches the children coming towards them, unconsciously echoing the latter half of Severus' realizations. Although, even as she knew the truth to her words, she also remembers the constant fear that lived in her heart that her son would be in danger if they were ever to fall from the Dark Lord's good graces.

"Severus, lookit." Hermione said, bypassing the two empty chairs in front of her professor to climb onto his lap, holding up a small grey garden snake twined around her forearm. "Isn't she cute?"

"Yes, girl." he said, stroking the little thing's head as it lifted up and flicked her small tongue out it to taste his finger.

"Can I keep her?" Hermione asked, mimicking his movements under her chin.

"She was born outside in the wild, girl, it would be cruel to lock her up."

She pouted but let the small creature slither lazily back into the sun on the cool grass, and then took her place back up in Severus' lap as the Malfoy's looked on at the unlikely couple.

Severus met Narcissa's searching gaze over Hermione's head as she talked to Draco who sat at his feet, nodding once slightly before glancing to Lucius who already knew of the darker man's decision once his wife had brought the children's safety into question. Each of the elder Malfoys looked on to how their child's godfather stroked the curly head of the girl sitting on his lap...

_How could one little girl change a man's life so completely that she could bring out a side of him that had been buried by a lifetime of abuse and neglect by those who were supposed to protect him?_

~.O.~

"Are you coming with us, Severus?" Hermione's father asked the man as they stood in front of the bricks that concealed Diagon Alley.

"No, I have some mandrake seeds to pick up from the Apothecary," he said tapping the bricks above Hermione's head as she was still too short to tap the right once herself. "Good day." He nodded to them as he squeezed Hermione's hand before sweeping himself into the crowds of back to Hogwarts people.

"This is beautiful!" Sheila said, looking to all the people in their colorful robes, the owls flying over their heads, and the magical shops they had never seen before as Severus had brought her supply shopping before her first year.

"Come on, Mum, Dad," she said grabbing their hands, "Hold on, you don't want to get lost in the crowd."

Finally they arrived at Flourish and Blotts, the inside looking as if the whole of Diagon Alley's customers were trying to fit inside the large bookstore.

"Look Hermione, there's the man who wrote all the books on your list!"

If there was ever a man in the world that was the complete opposite of Severus Snape, it was Gilderoy Lockhart in all his forget- me- not colored robes, golden hair and white teeth so bright they could shame the sun glory. Hermione thought she would much better prefer the dark man anyday.

"Isn't he handsome, Hermione?" her mother obviously thought differently as she whispered into her daughter's ear.

Hermione's face must have shown her apathy because her mother laughed, "Or maybe you would prefer black hair and robes better, darling?"

She felt her cheeks blush despite the truth of her mother's words, "I'm going to look for my other books, Mum." She said, walking away from her chuckling parents and up to the second floor to browse the charms' section.

"It's disgusting," she heard behind her as she dropped the book she had been browsing in surprise as Draco's snuck up on her. "Sorry." He bent down to pick up her book.

"Thanks," she took it back, looking down to where the girls surrounding Lockhart cooed and preened like peacocks trying to attract a mate. Though usually it was the male engaging the females and not the other way around. "I know."

"I thought you would like him," he smirked at her as she smacks his arm, "all the other girls seem to. Or maybe my uncle is more to your liking?"

She blushes once more and turns sharply away from his smug pointy face and saw various redheads entering the bookstore, wondering why everyone around her seemed so interested in how she had developed a slight crush on the much older man she spent so much time with these days.

_Have they all developed ESP or something?! Or am I that transparent that my Slytherin tendencies, as Severus puts them, are failing me?_

Telling Draco she had to meet with the Weasleys and Harry, she pleaded, "Will you try and not antagonize the boys this year? Or not go out of your way to anger them at least?"

"I make no promises," he said into her curls as she hugs him quickly and shakes her head in exasperation, knowing he's as stubborn as Severus when he dislikes something or someone. He waved to her as he descended towards the back way of the bookstore where his father was no doubt in conference about propieting a rare book for his collection Hermione had the pleasure of seeing during one of her and Severus' many visits during the summer.

"Hermione!" she heard two twin voices that were in the midst of turning deeper call to her just as she was picked up from the last step on the stairs, two strong arms dangling her in the air between them.

"Hi Fred, hi George," she laughed as they put her down grinning.

" _How can you always-"_

" _tell us apart 'Mione?"_ they asked, finishing each other's sentences.

She laughed as her parents came up behind her and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley began talking to the Grangers', Ginny and Ron tagging along and coming up to Hermione.

"Hello," the smaller redhead said to Hermione, shyly smiling at the older girl.

"Hello, Ginny." Hermione replied, turning to Ron, "Where's Harry?"

"Don't know," he shrugged, "he got lost in the floo. Hagrid found us and said he'd look for him and bring him here." He began looking around the store as if he could find a short boy with glasses in this mess of people, "We thought he would just meet us here, he knew we were coming here first."

The boy in question just so happened to be coming in the store now, dirty and disheveled, "Ron! Hermione!" he looked glad to see them.

"Hi, Harry. Where'd you go?"

"Knockturn Alley, I got lost until Hagrid found me," he whispered to them. "I saw Snape, Malfoy and his father in Borgin and Burkes trying to sell something earlier."

"I didn't know the greasy git was friends with those ferrets. Dad's been raiding all the Death Eater's houses for dark objects, I bet they were trying to sell them before he got to them first." Ron said with a nasty scowl on his face, Harry nodding along to what he said.

"Ron!" Hermione scolded, not at all liking that they were seen or the boy's name calling. "You don't know that."

He turned to her with his mouth open, so Harry, knowing that a fight was coming along nudged them both as everyone's attention turned to Lockhart who had started speaking and flashing his Colgate smile at the flashing cameras. Just as their group of smaller legged people made their way through the throngs of people once Molly took Harry's prize books to get autographed after all the ruckus the golden fraud had caused, Hermione thought nothing of nodding slightly to Lucius Malfoy who passed closely behind Ginny. A new supple leather book Hermione had seen sitting between Severus and Lucius on her first meeting with the Malfoys.

~.O.~

Hermione knew as soon as the Sorting ceremony began that the boys had run into trouble once again when they didn't turn up to stuff their faces at the feast, and it had something to do with Severus. She had sat Ginny who had been feeling nervous on the train as she knew no one except her brothers who had been scattered around, and she had knew Severus had duties checking those who arrived in the carriages that brought the older years to the castle, but she had seen not a one of them since the platform. After hugging and congratulating Ginny on getting into Gryffindor she snuck off into the dungeons in the middle of the feast where she could hear the furious voice of Severus echoing around the stone hallway from his open door.

Walking just up to the door but still hiding in the shadows, she saw the two boys cowering in front of the livid man.

"Not only did you flout the Statute of Secrecy with your little excursion and being seen by no less than seven muggles," he began, his upper body leaning against his desk with his arms crossed. "You have done damage to a very old, and very valuable Whomping Willow that has been on these grounds since before you were born. I believe your father works in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office, doesn't he Mr. Weasley?" All the while he stayed true to his deep voice, letting the echo of the dungeons amplify his anger for him.

Ron was flushed a deep red, his ears red as beets as he retorted back to the professor, "Honestly sir, I think it did more damage to us than we did to it." He did not acknowledge the insinuations Severus had made about his father, for once thinking ahead and not wanting to get into more trouble than he was already in.

Severus only stared for a moment, "If you were in my house, you would surely be on your way home right this instant. Not that any of my charges would be so foolish. Come with me."

He swept from his office with the abashed boys in tow, briefly grazing Hermione's hand to recognize her presence from where she stood blending into the stone darkness. After they had turned the corner she entered the room and closed the door behind her, knowing no one would question her absence from the Great Hall as Harry and Ron were absent as well.

Severus' office was disturbingly interesting to Hermione. The first time she had been in it she had looked at each and every jar he had on display, and committed each to memory. Little jars filled with potions, dried flowers, and other even more questionable things lined each and every lacquered shelf that didn't hold thick and thin books on all manner of subjects. At one time or another she had seen him use each ingredient, or read each book, and he had even let her read all the books on the lower shelves but forbade her from even touching those of the higher ones that contained the darker material that not even the Restricted Section had.

"Why are you not at the feast, girl?" Severus asked once he had come back from giving the boys over to Professor McGonagall.

"You weren't at the feast," was all the explanation she gave him, "What did they do?"

"Your dear friends drove a flying car to school after the barrier at the Platform closed."

She shook her head and yawned, crawling onto his lap, "Will you tell me another story about the Founders?"

He leaned back against the arm of his dark grey sofa and combed his fingers through her soft curls, her little fingers snaking up and lazily playing with his that was the complete opposite of her's.

"Which story?"

"About Salazar."

"Alright. Once, long ago there was a man called Salazar Slytherin..."

~.O.~

"I see your two precious Gryffindor's still darken our halls Minerva," Severus told his colleague during morning black coffee, his eyes on the girl who had fallen asleep in his lap last night and her two dunderhead friends.

"I can't see why you insist on being so humbug all the time, Severus," she told the man sitting to her left, not bothering to look at him as she knew he would most likely have his signature scowl painted cross his skinny face.

"Would you like a lemon drop, Severus?" Dumbledore asked, holding out the pale candy in his palm in front of Minerva who sat in between them.

"Keep your candy, old man," he said sneering, knowing full well that they were laced with a potion that would make you feeling happy the rest of the day. "I'm just fine with my coffee and my eggs."

Minerva snorted, glancing sideways to the man before doing a double take, "Severus?"

He took a deep sigh, not at all liking the conversational people in the mornings, "Yes, Minerva?"

"Is that a braid in your hair?" Pomona and Flitwick who sat on the other side of Severus stopped their conversation on the growing number of mandrakes in her greenhouse to look at Severus' hair, Dumbledore also taking a look from Minerva's right.

His lip quirked and glanced down to a laughing Hermione who was chatting with the Weasley girl, "Is there?"


	6. 2nd Year Part Two

" _Arrogance is the camouflage of insecurity."_

_-Tim Fargo_

~.O.~

Hermione had always loved the Hogwarts greenhouses with it's warm corners, all colors of the plants, and the contrast of stepping outside into the cold Scotland air from the humid house.

"Alright everyone!" Professor Sprout began, a smile covering her disgruntled look now she was free of the narcissistic Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who had snagged up Harry for autograph advice. "The Newt level Potions classes will be brewing Mandrake Restorative Draught very soon, and Professor Snape has asked us to re-pot the mandrakes in preparation. Now, everyone take a pair of earmuffs."

Mandrakes were so cutely ugly in the way that they resembled babies Hermione thought to herself, very wrinkly cranky babies. Purplish green in color, Hermione cringed at the thought of her ears bleeding from their piercing cries. Trying to re-pot them was a nightmare, but Hermione found that if you tickled it's belly they would stop wriggling so much and were loads more amicable to being put back into its soil. The boys didn't have so much luck, their's only cried louder and threatened to pierce the protective muffs while they squirmed, kicked, flailed their tiny fists, or gnashed their sharp little teeth at th humans.

"Professor Sprout?" Hermione got the Herbology teacher's attention after class had ended.

"Hello, Hermione," the plump woman smiled at her, "Great job with the mandrakes today, good idea with tickling their stomachs to get them to cooperate."

"Thank you. I was just wondering how the Whomping Willow was doing?"

She got a sour look on her face, scowling at the door as if someone were supposed to be standing right behind it, "It's on the mend from those boys' foolish venture driving a _car_ into it, I fear though if Lockhart keeps poking at it it will take longer for it's limbs to heal." She got a mischievous look on her face. "Or spin him around on one if it's good thick branches again."

Hermione chuckled at the image, knowing that's all she would daydream when she was in class later looking at the teacher in all his pastel robed glory.

~.O.~

As it turned out, the visual image of him cowering before a roomful of cornish pixies was better, and in that moment, Hermione greatly doubted he had been the one to do all the amazing things he had written about in his book.

"Did you see his face?" she squealed, laughing with Ron as they made their way to Harry's quidditch practice. "They were only pixies!"

"It's not funny, 'Mione," Ron scowled, rubbing his ear that sported tiny little teeth marks. "It could be infected. Look how red it is?"

"Ron, it's red because you keep rubbing at it," she pulled his arm down as they got to the green field that sported a group of Slytherins and Gryffindors facing each other.

 _Uh oh,_ Hermione thought as Oliver snatched a piece of paper from the Slytherin captain, Marcus Flint.

" _I, Professor Severus Snape give the Slytherin team permission to practice on the quidditch pitch today, owing to the need of training their new seeker._ "

Draco came to the front of the group, and Hermione just knew all hell was going to break loose from the smug look on his face that he was throwing at Harry.

Just then Flint saw them coming and got an unattractive look on his face, "Oh look here, Gryffindor's pet Weasel, and the Mudblood."

Hermione's body went cold, as if ice water had been poured over her head. For a moment the pitch was silent, everyone's head snapping towards the Slytherin captain, including Draco's, and then there was an uproar of yelling. The other Slytherin players, with the exception of Draco, jumped in front of Flint to keep Fred and George from jumping him. Alicia was shrieking in the background and hitting each boy she could reach, and Ron had his broken wand out. But Hermione wasn't listening, or even seeing anything that was happening. Severus had told her long ago what it had meant when he had first told her about the Death Eater's views, and he admitted the only time he had ever said the word was once to a close friend in school and had been loath to ever say it again. This blatant display of bullying however, brought back memories of muggle school children either outright avoiding her or calling her out on her very obvious oddness. The sense of deep loneliness creeping back upon her as she reflects back on this memory, she fights to rationalize herself back to the height of her previous happiness.

Turning around, she calmly walked into the castle and down to the dungeons without looking back to the two rivaling groups. Knocking on the Potions class door, Severus invited her in, "Girl?" he had a questioning look about his face as he saw the blank look on the usually upbeat and open little girl as she shuffled her feet, glancing between his face and her feet.

He was sitting at his desk grading papers with his signature red ink splashed about the pages in scathing remarks as she speaks, "Marcus Flint called me a mudblood."

Severus gave Flint detention for the next two weeks for obvious breakage of his rules on zero tolerance towards bullying of fellow students, and Hermione spent the rest of the day helping him grade first year papers. She had been walking back to Gryffindor tower when she met a very pale Harry on the stairs, looking as if he had seen a ghost on one of the muggle movies she liked so much.

"You don't hear it do you?" he asked her, saying he had heard a voice asking to kill someone, that it had smelled blood.

"I'm sorry, Harry," she said, seeing he really thought he heard something no one else could hear but himself. "Don't tell anyone else," she told him, knowing they would think he was mad. "If you hear it again we'll figure out who it is, okay?"

He looked at her, relieved that at least someone believed him, "Oh! Are you okay? We couldn't find you after Quidditch practice, and then we had detention."

She smiled at him soothingly, "I'm fine, Harry. It's the first time, but I'm sure it's not the last I'll hear something like that being said about me. You didn't have to get upset for me."

"Yes, I did. I was bullied enough by my cousin to know how it feels, and you're one of best friends." He grinned at her, and Hermione was glad to see he seemed to forget the voice for the moment. "Plus, you and your little arms couldn't reach his face high enough to punch him like I did."

She fake gasped, and punched his arm lightly just to spite him as he put an arm around her and walked with it wrapped around her skinny shoulders the rest of the way to Gryffindor tower, not once seeing the darkening glint in her eye as she twirled her thoughts on how to punish the Slytherin for his hurtful words.

~.O.~

Hermione had heard of Deathday Parties, and she hadn't liked it one bit once she read exactly what they consisted of. They were as awful as the books had said.

"Let's leave now, Harry," she told him shivering, pulling on his sleeve. With all the ghosts around it was freezing in the small room, as well as smelling awful with all the rotten food. "Maybe we can get to the Great Hall in time for dessert."

"Alright," he grabbed her hand in order to squeeze past the ghosts as going through them was worse than falling into the Great Lake during winter, his warm hand sending sparks into her cold one. "Let's find Ron."

They found him by the door looking like he was ready to bolt, "Finally guys! Can we leave now?"

Hermione looked behind them to see if anyone was looking, "Go, now," she pushed Ron by the shoulder and pulled Harry along by his hand.

"Pudding might not be finished yet," Ron said hopefully, leading the way to the Entrance Hall.

But Harry had stopped a few feet behind them, his face white as milk.

"Harry?" Hermione asked worriedly, he looked the same way he did when she had found him on the stairs a couple of weeks ago. "Do you hear the voice again?"

"Voice?" Ron was confused, clearly Harry had taken her advice and not told anyone else, the redhead looked to her and she shook her head to cut him off as she allowed Harry to speak.

"Wait- " he said, freezing for a minute, and then taking off up the stairs, "It's going to kill someone." Harry hurtled around the whole of the second floor, Ron and Hermione panting behind him, not stopping until they turned a corner into the last deserted hallway.

Or not so deserted.

Along the wall ahead, something red was shining. Foot-high words had been daubed on the wall between two windows, shimmering in the light cast by the bright torches…

" _The Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Enemies of the heir beware."_

"Oh, Merlin," Hermione breathed, her shaking hand went up to grab her pearl necklace as she usually did in stressful times. Mrs Norris hung by her tail over a puddle of water from a sconce.

 _She's been petrified,_ Hermione saw, her thoughts going a mile a minute. _The mandrakes…_

For a few seconds, they didn't move. Then Ron said, "We should get out of here. We don't want to be found here."

But it was too late. The feast was over, and hundreds of happy students traipsed into the hall, the bustle stopping suddenly as the people in front caught sight of the message on the wall.

"Mrs. Norris!" Mr. Filch had arrived complaining about the hold up, but arrived to see his familiar instead in such a state. Hermione felt tears prickle at the corners of her eyes as she watched the usually rigid man have an internal breakdown as he unhooked his cat and cradled her stiff body in his arms.

"What is going on here?" Dumbledore came to the front of the gaping crowd that had started to murmur but fell silent to make a path for the tall headmaster, Severus, Lockhart, and Professor McGonagall. He ran his eyes over the four people in front of him, not at all looking like his usual dotty self, "Argus, Miss. Granger, Mr. Weasley, Mr. Potter, come with me please."

Hermione glanced at Mr. Filch one more time, seeing a paler than usual Ginny in the crowd behind him, before Professor McGonagall ushered them forward into Lockhart's dark office.

After some gentle poking and prodding at the dark spotted and lined cat with matted blood in her fur, Dumbledore came to the same conclusion Hermione already had, that she was simply petrified and not indeed dead. McGonagall stood inspecting the animal as well, and Lockhart was hovering all around them making all sorts of suggestions that had caused the poor caretaker to start dry sobbing into his hands.

Severus had only loomed in the background, half in shadow wearing a most peculiar face as he looked at Hermione.

Dumbledore questioned Harry and Ron as to why they were in the hallway, but Hermione could not take her eyes off of the little furry body of Mrs. Norris and didn't hear what their replies were. She turned back into the conversation as Lockhart said something Severus didn't like and his reply of…

" _I believe I am Potions Master at this school"_ ended the conversation and they were sent up to bed.

Hermione looked back to Severus who was once again doing his best to mimic a shade, and finally understood why he had brought her to Lucius and Narcissa at the end of summer.


	7. 2nd Year Part Three

" _She shields and protects him. He wat_ _ches over her. She would do anything for him. Their loyalty is steadfast."_

~.O.~

Hermione had given Mr. Filch one of her signature Hermione Hugs she usually reserved for Severus the first time she had seen him sweeping the halls dejectedly on her way into the dungeons. Although he had been told Mrs. Norris would be cured within a few weeks once Severus had made the Mandrake Restorative Draught, he still would look run down and haggard each time she saw him. More than usual anyway. The day after the incident, Hermione went down to Severus' office to watch him brew the draught. As she stepped into his private lab, he said hello and nothing else as Hermione propped herself up on the stool in front of him and did her best to mimic one of his stare downs that could make anyone flee in fear for a good five minutes before she gave up.

"Do these messages have anything to do with the book Lucius put into Ginny's school books?" she had never been one to beat around the bush when asking Severus questions, knowing it would get her nowhere.

"Do you know what the Chamber of Secrets is, girl?" he asked her in place of his answer, once again giving her the answer she sought in place of a question.

 _A question unanswered is an answer given,_ he had told her once.

"No," she said, having poured over every book in the library since the message had been written in blood and had gotten nowhere.

"Do you remember the story I told you after the Opening Feast about Salazar then?" She nodded. "He had built the Chamber when him and the three other founders had first built the school, and housed a beast inside of it to protect it's home from those who would seek to hurt it. A Basilisk. Even if his intentions were noble, they were not seen as entirely good by his brother and sisters, and was exiled to the Old World countries." He put down the pen he had been twirling through his fingers, and leaned back in his tall backed chair. "The Chamber can only been open by a Parselmouth, a serpent speaker."

Hermione felt like time a frozen around her for a moment, "Harry's been hearing a voice. He heard a voice before we found Mrs. Norris, and earlier this year." Her tongue felt like it was fused to the roof of her mouth, her confusion making her brow wrinkle. "How do you know all of this, Severus?"

His fingers smoothed her forehead and pulled her into his lap in order to wrap his arms around her, "The Dark Lord is the heir Hermione, and yes, Lucius did give Ginny a book in the summer. He was given orders to give it to a school year Pureblood if he had ever had a doubt as to if the Dark Lord was in danger of being killed, and he contacted him through the pages."

"But isn't that a good thing?" she looked up to his dark eyes, running her fingers over his afternoon stubble along his jawline. "You would be free to do what you really want."

"And what is it I want girl?"

"To live. To own your own life instead of having someone decide it for you."

_To own your own life instead of having someone decide it for you… what a novel idea. And almost impossible to achieve when serving a master… or loving someone._

Severus smiled down to the optimistic girl, "Sometimes you simply don't have a choice, and all you can do is protect the ones you love to the best of your ability."

_Hopefully I will not fail with you, girl… I will not._

~.O.~

Hermione's head even more crammed with information than it usually was, she didn't know if her having all the knowledge of the Dark Lord's plans was a good idea for a thirteen year old. But Severus had entrusted her with it seemingly thinking she could handle it most likely knowing she would need it in the future. Her parents had always called her a child genius, and she would try her absolute hardest not to abuse Severus' trust, or fail their expectations. The conversation with Severus had sparked something inside Hermione, and she didn't know what it was just yet. She knew though, the plan forming inside her head was not a particularly safe one. She had to do everything she could to help Severus though, and fate seemed to agree with her as she had found what she had been looking for in Moaning Myrtle's flooded bathroom one day several weeks after talking to the man in question.

Hermione sat on her red covered bed within Gryffindor Tower, debating on rather or not if writing in _Tom Marvolo Riddle's_ book was the best idea in the world.

 _Severus will be so angry when I tell him,_ part of her brain screamed to her as she bit her lip,other saying, _it's to protect him, for at least a little while. He will understand…_

_I hope…_

_Such a foolish girl._

But the rub was this: Hermione knew his decision even without him voicing it, that was the downside of him cultivating her sense of understanding and defining undertones of other people's words. He will contribute to the rise of the Dark Lord once again as it was inevitable either way, but in this decision he will be protecting her as she is simply a muggle- born young teenager who has no options of protecting herself from those who would do her harm.

_Yet anyway._

She had always been too smart, or sometimes absolutely and positively _stupid_ for her own good, and writing in the leather bound book would only confirm the Sorting Hat's decision to put her in Gryffindor.

Putting her wet quill to the decades old parchment, she began writing to something she had no full comprehension of.

"Hello, Tom."

Not a minute later, words in fluid script appeared beneath her own loopy one…

_Hello, Ginerva. I was beginning to think you had forgotten me._

"My name is Hermione."

This time, his response was not so fast coming,

_Hello, Hermione. How have you come to find my diary?_

"I found it drowning in water. It seems as if Ginny didn't want it anymore." Hermione wrote, rubbing her quill feathers across her neck in an attempt to sooth her racing heartbeat as the book seemed to pulse with a heat coming from the pages after her statement. As if it had a whole life of it's own.

_You don't seem to be surprised to see a book is talking to you._

"I know who you are."

_Who am I?_

"The Dark Lord." Hermione's heart was beating out of her chest at his response.

Finally, after a very long pause that could have been a minute, or an hour, he replied.

_You are a clever girl. Would you like to speak face- to- face, Hermione?_

"Yes, I would." She told him, not allowing the voice wailing in the back of her mind to _go back and close this evil book_ to deter her from her original plan.

With those words there was a quick flash of bright blinding light coming from where her hands held the book tightly enough to cause a deep papercut on the soft meat of her palm as the ink bled into the page and red stained one side.

She stood on the edge of a cliff facing a raging sea of water in a grey filled world.

"Hello, Hermione," a smooth voice said behind her.

Turning, she saw a boy about a few years older than her in a black suit and tie, his wavy hair making him resemble more a model on a magazine cover than a sixteen year old. "Hello, Tom." She could hear children somewhere down the rocky hill they stood on. "Where are we?" she asked, looking around at the caves surrounding them made of uneven and weathered rock.

"A beach I used to come to as a boy," he replied, circling her slowly as he talked, her doing the same to him in turn. "How do you claim to know me?"

Hermione smiled slightly, "From one of your devoted followers." His eyes flashed, "Will you remember our conversation once you are resurrected?"

His inquisitiveness grew impossibly more in his eyes, although his face showed nothing save a healthy does of simple curiosity, "I will. Are you saying that you are here to help me?"

"Yes. Would you accept help from a little mudblood like me?" She challenged him, wanting to get a feel on how he would react to certain ideologies he had pushed when he had lived for the first time. And his truthfulness towards her.

His head cocked to the side, intrigued by the small girl as he continued studying her, "Blood purity never mattered to me, although some of my followers do have a tendency to take it a bit far. As to the petrifications, unleashing the Basilisk was just a way to have a little bit of fun while I am trapped in here and she tends to get lonely when she herself is trapped within a hidden chamber with no one to talk to. Which of my Death Eaters have you been in contact? And why would I choose to accept help from a girl who could not be more than thirteen?"

"When you are resurrected, may I have a boon?" she ignored his questions for now, noticing how his lips tightened in response, but then smoothed to a charming smile she didn't believe for a moment.

_Someone doesn't like being ignored… but he is a curious thing. Much like me._

"I give you my word," he nodded his head, "You may have anything you want. I have a feeling you already have an idea of what you would like?"

Hermione laughed lightly, turning her head up into the wind that swirled around them. "I do. The Death Eater I am friends with is Severus, and you should accept my help because I hold your book, and I also am much smarter than my age would give the impression of."

"Ah," he was the one who now laughed, "I see that. He was a loyal one, my spy; and is still if you standing before me is not proof enough. Even as I remember giving my diary to Lucius to carry, but that is no matter at this point." He waved his hand as if batting away a fly before returning them to his pockets, "I am more intrigued by you now than Miss Weasley anyway, much more entertaining. Does he know you are here?"

"Severus does not know I am here, he will be very displeased when he learned that I had talked to you without informing him first." Hermione gave him the truth, hoping to the Gods that intrigue and the illusion of all knowingness will help her cause in gaining his trust.

"You _are_ extraordinarily intelligent for your age, girl." That was a very high compliment coming from him she knew, Severus had said once he was a very hard man to please. "Now, tell me, how do you plan on purging me from this book, then we may speak of the boon you seek?"

Hermione smiled at him, knowing she had gotten his interest but was not naive enough to think he trusted her just yet. He would only know she was trustworthy when she proved her worth.

_Such a foolish girl… how can you protect a grown man who has already lived through one war and decades more?_

She took the arm he had offered, her plans coming together very nicely indeed.

~.O.~

Until fate decided to kick her in the teeth in regards to Harry.

The boys had roped her into coming to the Duelling Club Severus had once talked about him being in his years at Hogwarts, and surprise surprise, she wasn't impressed with Lockhart at all from the start. The teacher had not proved himself worthy of his official job as of yet, and Hermione doubted he ever would, so she immediately had reservations as he stepped up on the long runway in his plum colored robes more suited for the camera than for dueling.

"Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little Duelling Club to train you all up in case you need to defend yourself," _against the beast roaming the halls_ was unsaid in the excited air of the open room.

_Not like it would do any good if you are petrified… or dead._

"As myself have done on countless occasions- for full details see my entire published works..." he strutted about the dias he was raised upon, flashing that pompous smile after every sentence he finished. "Let me introduce my assistant, Severus Snape," he said with yet another smile, his arm sweeping out to the fiercely scowling man who had his arms crossed.

_If I had that look fixed on me… I probably will once I tell him what I've done…_

Hermione sighed heavily, knowing that conversation was not going to be good at all.

Finally Lockhart finished his mini dialogue and got knocked off his feet by the Potions Master in one second flat, ending his farce as he and Severus drew the students into pairs.

"Perhaps it would be best if you taught them how to block spells before getting them to curse at one another, yes?" Severus had suggested with an eyebrow raised above it's normal position, but the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor insisted they were ready with a panicked look about his face that gave away his lack of knowledge in the area.

Hermione and Ron getting paired together, Harry and Draco were paired by the slightly triumphant man to who Hermione gave a look that was ignored. Firing charms back and forth, only Hermione landed one on Ron, and beside them Harry and Draco were getting increasingly rougher with their spells until one put an end to their duel.

" _Serpensortia!"_ Draco yelled, conjuring a long black snake that landed heavily between the two boys, the people closest to them gasping and backing away, causing the rest of the room to become curious. Soon they were all paying attention and gathering around.

"Hermione!" Ron hissed to her, pulling her back from the two boys and the snake as she herself wasn't backing away. His hiss apparently wasn't said quietly enough as the snake turned his attention towards the curly haired girl and started slithering towards her, new, bigger hands pushing her behind his tall frame with his beechwood wand raised to the animal of his house to supress it.

Suddenly, a louder hiss was heard throughout the room coming from Harry, and that was the end of his secret.

_Oh, dear… here we go now._


	8. 2nd Year Part Four

**"** _Everyone has kind of done something bad and everyone has shades of good, but everyone has that darkness. There's always that little twinkle of darkness in everyone's eye."_

_Emma Roberts_

~.O.~

"What were you thinking?" the exact expression was on Severus' face that she was afraid of. The one with the furrowed brows, his lips pinched tight as he threatens to break his teeth from the occasional grind. When he didn't even call her 'girl,' she knew he was even more upset than he seemed on the outside. to Hermione who could read him like a book after two years, most of the time anyway, he was pretty _furious._ She had finally told him about meeting with Tom and her plans, and suffice to say, he was reacting exactly as she suspected him to.

_So far so good..._

"You put yourself on his radar, and have made yourself a target."

Hermione sighed, "Severus, do you honestly think I wouldn't be a target anyway once he is resurrected? I'm the best friend of the boy who weakened him for a full _decade_ where he had to feed on someone else's boy like a parasite." He was severely displeased, even crossing his arms showing it would take much talking to calm him and hear her out.

"And how do you know he will be resurrected? How do you know you will be safe?"

"I know _we_ will be safe, for a while at least once he is back to full strength because we will help him get there. Lucius already set things in motion with Ginny and that book, and you backed him."

His arms uncrossed to pinch his nose unsurprised in her complete knowledge of his workings, his right elbow resting on his uncovered forearm baring the Dark Mark, "You have condemned yourself to being in constant danger, how do you expect me to react, girl?"

She brought her bare feet up onto the sofa that she was sitting upon, grabbing Severus' shoulders to bring him closer, "I will have been in constant danger already, Sev. Only this way though, we can choose our own path to the same ending, and I can keep you safe." She brought down his hands that then came around her waist to give her a hug, his hands grazing her long hair as hers wrapped around his neck and buried her face in his long hair.

He laughed, the tension finally seeping from his body, making Hermione relax as well although she knew he wouldn't stay mad at her for long.

 _Wait until we really start, Sev._ She thought, knowing they would be worried sick for one another once the Dark Lord was out in the open. She didn't think her boon with the Dark Lord would last for long if they both could not fulfill her word to him sooner rather than later.

"I'm the one who's supposed to keep you safe," he mumbled in her light curls, "You're too young to be taking care of yourself, let alone a grown man twice your age. Or making deals with murderous Dark Lords."

She chuckled, "I'm too young to be in the middle of a war, and yet here we are." They were quiet for a while, just holding onto each other knowing everything was going to change.

"Can I brew polyjuice in your lab?" He leaned back and gave her a look, Hermione only answering with a blinding smile.

~.O.~

Drinking the Polyjuice Potion wasn't very pleasant, and turning forms was even less. Hermione's insides writhed as if they housed live snakes trying to burst out from beneath her skin, and then came the burning sensation that started at her fingertips to end at her toes. Doubling over groaning, she heard her moans echoed by the boys in the cubicles beside her as her muscles felt like they were trying to do their best to explode outside of her skin, and as she knelt down to all fours, she knew something was horribly wrong as soft skin gave way to even softer fur.

_Damn Harry and Ron for roping me into this! As if Draco could possibly be the Heir of Slytherin with his blatant display of NOT saying he is the Heir. He would have been covertly gloating if he did indeed believe in blood purity in the first place and was happy that other children were being attacked._

"Hermione, are you coming?" Harry called from outside the cubicle, Hermione continued staring at her sharpened fingernails.

"No," she said, her voice a bit higher than normal, "Go on without me."

"Are you alright?" He continued, insisting that she come out.

She opened the door angrily, the boys jumping back at her appearance, "You are wasting time! Go! I have to take care of this."

They ran out of the bathroom in the skins of Crabbe and Goyle as Hermione made her way stealthily to the dungeons, the reflexes she had grown along with the fur making her quieter and easier to elude passing students and professors.

Before leaving she had turned on all of the sink taps, it's rushing water almost immediately flooding their small basins and running onto the floor. While pulling out the leather bound journal from her satchel which she had opened to a random page and gently placed where she had once found it drowning in the water, she prayed that no one would find it before the boys made it back.

_And it begins…_

"You do know it's not supposed to be used for animal transformations right?" Severus asked her once he had given into his hysterical laughing, waving his wand over the sheet that covered her naked body. He insisted she didn't want him casting the spells to get rid of the unwanted hair while she still wore her clothes as it wouldn't dissolve once detached from her body. Not to mention the pain of ridding her curls of an extra pair of ears and backside appendage, aka a tail.

She gave him a dirty look as the unwanted hair fell away onto the table, and sat up as he gave her one of his shirts that was more like a dress on her than a shirt. "I know that very well, Severus. As you can see. I didn't exactly expect her robes to have cat hair on them, did I?"

He chuckled once again, looking lighter and even more carefree than usual, laughing and letting go for a bit having done wonders for his physical image. He had looked ten years younger when he had his head thrown back with his hair tied at the nape of his neck after a long day of classes, and his deep baritone filling the room. He took hold of her chin, looking in her eyes, "Your pupils are still vertical, and your fingernails are still sharp. I doubt they will go away."

Hermione sighed, "At least the hair is gone." She smiled at him, "Thank you."

He tapped her jaw and looked at her canines, smirking a bit as he touched it lightly and his thumb came back with a drop of blood, "I doubt these will go away either."

She snapped at him, making him laugh more than she had ever heard from him in a day.

_Cheeky man._

_.._

She had also developed heightened sight in the dark it seemed, and hearing as well as she heard footsteps coming from behind her as she turned a corner in the cold dungeons. Acting like she didn't hear them, she heard the boy, identified by the heavier footed gait and mustier smell, and came to the top of a small flight of stairs before the boy grabbed her by her hair and pushed her back into the stone wall she had been walking beside. Gasping to catch her breath as he had knocked the wind out of her, she looked up into the unattractive face of Marcus Flint.

"What do you want?" she cowered, not at all wanting him to see he scared her with his much larger and intimidating stature. The fact that her _cat senses_ were still a little haywire and on edge did not help to distinguish her human nature from the actions of an instinctual animal that would normally hiss and fight till blood was drawn. "Do you make it a habit of following around second years around the dungeons?" She felt the stone scraping the backs of her legs from where Severus' altered shirt ended.

He yanks her forward only to push her back roughly against the stone once more with his hand on her throat, causing her head to knock into the hard rock behind her, "Shut up, Mudblood!" he whispered, knowing voices traveled in these echoey halls, especially in the cavernous dungeons.

She gritted her teeth as she felt something rise inside her, warming her from head to toe. She dug her newly sharpened nails into his cheek, slashing it on his left as he yelled and backed away from her.

"You, bitch!"

"You shouldn't pick on people who you don't know, Marcus." She said as she backed him up until he was on the edge of the staircase and seemingly not noticing it, her eyes dilating into vertical pupils to which the boy could not see but would most assuredly be somewhat terrified of.

"You're just a filthy little Mudblood, Granger! I am not scared of you."

She gave him a little frown, making her look her young age, "That's a very rude word. You should stop using it." And then she pushed him down the stone steps just as arms came around her waist to pull her back from the edge as well.

"Girl," Severus was in front of her now, blocking her view of the now unconscious boy silently lying one the cold floor, his arm at an unnatural angle with deep gouges marring his cheek. Most likely going to leave a scar.

"What did you do? Were you trying to kill him?"

She looked at him with unapologetic eyes, not knowing what the emotion that was swirling in his black ones. She pushed aside the hair that had fallen in his face, "No, but he was being mean, Severus. He didn't learn anything from the last time."

He only stared at her for a moment before Flint started moaning where he lie, "Go back to your dorm girl," he told her, kissing her forehead as she nodded; knowing he would make sure the mean boy didn't talk.

As Severus levitated the stationary boy, he looked back to the small girl that was just rounding the corner on her way back to Gryffindor tower, no doubt to check on the boys she insisted on calling her friends. She had the same look he had had many times before, the uncaring one that often came with doing something to someone he had disliked highly. They were more alike than he had previously thought on account of the darker side of themselves, but unlike himself, who had no one to pull him back and keep him from making mistakes and indulging in that particular side of himself, she had him. Not that he was a particularly good role model in that area of self- control, but he would not allow her to lose her innocence in place of her more primal instincts that her recent transformation had only just brought to the surface and amplified.

"What happened?! Was it another attack?" Madame Pomfrey came bustling towards him as her wards signaled her to people entering the Hospital Wing, still dressed in her day robes lest another child fell to the unknown creature going around Hogwarts.

"He fell," Severus said distractedly, "Down the stairs."

~.O.~

Leaving the diary was a risky move, anyone could have found it before Harry and Ron got back to the bathroom, but it was worth it as Harry was the one to get it and write to Tom. There had been no more attacks on the muggleborns, but even though Hermione knew she wasn't in danger of being petrified she wasn't taking any chances. Severus had been quieter than usual when she had visited him after he had seen her push Marcus down the stairs, he had just sat as his desk staring at her as she worked, only saying something when when she finally put her quill down beside the drying ink.

"Severus," she asked patiently, suspecting what he had wanted to talk about.

His hand came down from where his thumb had been resting on his lips as his other fingers rested under his chin. "How did it make you feel?"

She sighed, looking down and twisting her fingers as she got up and went around his desk to lean against it beside his chair, "It didn't make me feel anything."

His fingers pried her's apart and twisted his own around them, "Girl," his stern voice cut through her recollection, and she knew he knew she wasn't telling the truth as when he usually used that voice it meant _cut it out, I won't judge you for being you._

Her chin raised and she looked him in the eyes, "It felt good, Severus." Hermione felt emotion well up in her throat, "It scared me. Am I a bad person, Severus? For feeling that way?" she had asked him.

He grabbed her up and put her on his lap to wrap himself around her, knowing she liked it when he did that as if it made her feel safe, "No, girl. Out of the two of us, I'm the bad person. And that's putting it lightly." She felt so tiny.

She chuckled into his chest, settling her arms around his waist, "You're not a bad person, Severus. If you were, you wouldn't love me."

He only held her tighter.

~.O.~

Harry lay in front of her on the hospital bed, looking small surrounded by the layers of the white sheets after his ordeal with the Basilisk. He had talked to Tom and had been shown his memory of Hagrid, but of course he didn't believe him and had gone off on his and Ron's mission of finding the Chamber of Secrets without her; claiming it was safer for her to be kept away from the, quote ' _muggleborn hating beast'_ unquote. While their intentions were good, it made her mad as hell as they disappeared into the girl's' bathroom the night Ginny was taken by Tom, holding a cowardly Lockhart at wand-point. Harry had killed the Basilisk with the Sword of Gryffindor and saved Ginny, almost killing himself in the process with it's poisonous venom before Professor Dumbledore's familiar healed him with his tears.

The stupid.

Lucius had been called back into the headmaster's office once Dumbledore, who Lucius had suspended once the attacks had continued, and Harry accused him of putting the book in Ginny's cauldron at Flourish and Blotts. He had walked away without his House- Elf Dobby that Harry had made friends with in the end after Harry's Slytherin- like sneakiness in putting a sock into the book that had once contained the little piece of Tom freed him from his masters. After Madame Pomfrey had heard of Harry's little ordeal she whisked him off to the Hospital Wing where he now lay in front of her, Dreamless Sleep circulating through his system.

"Why do you insist on ending the year in the hospital each year?" Hermione asked his sleeping form, Ron lay next to him under the same influence as his arm had been hit by a boulder when he and Harry had gotten separated, and Lockhart next to Ron due to an Obliviation Charm backfiring.

"Because he is a dunderhead," Severus said, seemingly melting out of the castle walls as if he had been a part of them. "And trouble seems to follow you three no matter where you go, I swear you want it to find you after how much you go seeking it out."

Hermione chuckled lightly, pushing some of Harry's messy hair off his forehead and reaching up to where Severus' hand dangled right above her head to twine her little fingers with his big ones. "They do. I try to be the voice of reason and make the danger less so."

The were quiet for a long while, Hermione watching Harry breathing, Severus watching his girl before he spoke, "You're in it now, girl."

She wasn't smiling now as she glanced to the ruined leather journal that lay beside Harry's bedside containing a large hole the size of her fist, "I know. But you've been in it for much longer."

~.O.~

_Malfoy Manor_

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy stood hovering over the cold white and darkly veined body of a young man with dark hair who once had blue eyes.

"Why are we doing this again, Lucius?" Narcissa whispered to her husband in the large quiet room as they stood vigil over the body. "Remind me why I told Severus this was the better option?"

"You know why Cissy," he told his frightened wife, pulling an arm round her shoulders. They didn't think the Dark Lord's rise would come again this soon, especially not in their home where they raised their only son. Severus had told them to have a body that had died of natural causes and was young in age, saying that they would have an instrumental part in his rise once again in order to defeat him and protect themselves and their son. He would say no more than that and was surprisingly close- mouthed about the whole ordeal considering he needed their help, but they had suspected it had something to do with the clever little girl he and Draco had taken a shine too.

"What did we get ourselves into?" she whispered into his chest, not expecting an answer and trying to hold her emotions back.

"Mum? Father?" Draco came into the room holding the hand of their new little house elf.

"Draco," Narcissa held her hand out to him, kneeling down to hug him as her husband put a hand on her shoulder in support.

"What's wrong?" Draco wiped away a tear that had escaped his mother's watery eyes, scared and confused as he didn't know why a black robed man was lying in the middle of the room utop an oaken table.

"We need you to be strong, my boy," Narcissa smooth back her son's hair so much like his father's, "The Dark Lord will be resurrected soon, and we need you to show no weakness in front of him. We will have his followers in our house again, and you need to show that you support and follow their views. But keep everything we have taught you in your heart. Do you understand me, Draco?"

He still looked scared, but he looked up to his father who nodded and copied his wife's actions, "I understand, Mother." His parents had told him of the dark times that had come along with the Dark Lord and what they had had to do, what he would be expected to do. He knew he wouldn't be able to be seen as being friendly with Hermione anymore, but he would do what he was expected by his family to protect them.

The three blondes continued to stand vigil over the young man, right until the second his body spasmed as if an electric shock had gone through it.

Draco jumped.

The man was still for a moment as if the previous movement was only a trick of the mind, only broken by the twitch over his fingers, down to his leg, and then the rising of his chest as it then continued to take a deep gasp of air.

"My Lord," Draco's parents knelt as the man regained enough strength to stand and explore his new body with his sharpened fingernails. "Welcome back."

The new body of Dark Lord that differed so much from his previous snake like one leveled them with a once blue eyed, now red, stare, hissing as if it had forgotten human language, " _Get me Severus."_


	9. 3rd Year Part One

" _Because of you I laugh a little harder, cry a little less, and smile a lot more."_

~.O.~

Hermione's summer was uneventful to say the least, compared to her Hogwarts affairs anyway. It was an ordinary muggle vacation in the south of France with her parents, and little to no Severus as he had been immersed within Death Eater business for most days in preparation for the Dark Lord's public return. Even so, Hermione was surprised when Professor McGonagall had shown up with a golden hourglass in hand and handed it to Hermione with instructions to not play around with it until she was on Hogwarts grounds once more. One of the last Time Turners had been entrusted to Dumbledore years ago, to which he then entrusted to her in aid of her studies and most likely Harry.

Being friends with the Boy- Who- Lived was an interesting life to say the least that came with a few perks and quirks, and Hermione suspected they would be giving her classes that would be beneficial to Harry in the future. Under strict instructions to use it for classes and classwork only, by giving it to her a few weeks in advance to the first day of school she was to adjust to the slightly heavy weight of it around her neck as she would be wearing it everywhere beneath her clothes, and get used to writing down her everyday actions in a journal that had endless pages Severus had gifted her.

She was just glad that she would finally be able to begin Ancient Runes and Arithmancy.

Severus had explained to her that once her second year at Hogwarts had ended, they would be spending a significantly less amount of time together seeing as Voldemort had ordered him to spy once again on the Order and Dumbledore in addition to seeking a cure to his failing health, all the while bided his time until he was strong enough once again in a body that was his own once more. The Dark Lord would not allow her to serve him just yet. Not until he was sure that his little helper was not being followed and silently protected by a member of the Light after the Voldemort related happenings of the last two years within Hogwarts walls. Which, as it so happened, Severus had glanced on more than one occasion a witch or wizard following the two of them as he took her through a muggle mall on one of their outings.

Although he had spent a few days with the Grangers' at the beginning of the break, Hermione had only seen him for a few hours at a time in between his duties, and Mark and Sheila Granger could see it affecting their usually energetic daughter when she would sink into bouts of silence for hours at a time even when she would try to hide it. Hermione hadn't told her parents about Voldemort just yet, not wanting to alarm them about their daughter going into a dangerous world, and Severus supported her decision even if he didn't completely condone omitting the truth from the people who had entrusted their daughter to him.

They loved their daughter to death, and they loved spending time with her during her months off of school as she had been staying for holidays to be with the new man in her life, but they were glad when he had decided to pick her up a few weeks before summer break ended and take her to his home. Never once did they think ill of his intentions towards their young girl as it was clear he would rather jump in front of a bullet for her than hurt her or intend anything untowards. After all, it really was no different from being at Hogwarts, just in closer quarters.

Oblivious to the fact that he had intended to whisk her away from her parents, having told the elder Grangers he wanted to surprise her to make up the lost time together her eyes had lit up as they always did when he showed up and pounced her little body into his arms as if it were any other normal day he visited, "Sev!"

He chuckled, his weary face that seemed to have aged ten years with his sleepless nights breaking into his quirk of the lips that melted it all away. "Hello, girl." He bounced her up from where her legs and arms twined around him like a monkey, "Are you ever going to grow?" He asked, she hadn't grown much from her eleven year old body, only shooting up a few inches to where she came up to the middle of his upper arm in her thirteen year old form and was still light as a feather. Curves were still slowly forming into that of a young teen as well.

She leaned back, a big smile on her face, "Nope. What are you doing here?"

"You are coming with me," he said, putting her on the ground, "To Spinner's End until it is time to return to Hogwarts."

She looked at him ecstatic even though she would still miss her parents terribly, but said okay. Turning to her now relieved parents, she squeezed them and grabbed her trunk before saying goodbye and informing them to redirect any owls she received from Harry who she had been keeping tabs on at his horrible Aunt and Uncle's home.

..

Hermione looked around the house Severus had grown up in, and sneezed. Dust seemed to penetrate the dark walls of the small house located in Cokeworth, and she was very surprised that a man as organized as him would allow it to get this way. The only seemingly clean thing in the house was the bookshelves lining every wall she could see, no doubt due to them being spelled.

"Severus?" she looked at his abashed face, "What in the world…?"

"I haven't been here for more than a few days at a time in a few years, as I have either been at Hogwarts, traveling, or Malfoy Manor," he defended, walking towards the stairs. "Your room is up here."

The bedroom was just across from his own. The room having used to belong to his parents, Hermione finally noticed that there was nothing personal in the whole house. Not surprising if he lived the majority of the time elsewhere.

"Why did you bring me here, Severus?" Hermione peered out of the dirty window. Severus had obviously cleaned up their two rooms, but things still had the musty smell of having not been used for almost a decade.

"You need to know where it is, if anything happens to me and you need somewhere to stay." He put his intentions bluntly, "It is warded and no one can enter unless either myself, or now you, allow them." He hadn't looked at her during his explanation, and Hermione felt like crying at the thought of something happening to him.

He waved his wand to enact another cleaning charm around the room but Hermione preferred to clean manually after using them to get the smell and dirt out of the room, and so she now gave herself a new project to make his home as homey as her own. Seeing as he won't do it himself, as well as make new memories in it to drive out the bad ones he no doubt had from his childhood. Of his father and mother.

"C'mon," she said, grabbing his wand out of his hand and wrapping her's around it, "We are going to clean your house, and make it livable."

"It's perfectly livable, girl. It just has a bit of dust. Everywhere."

She stopped and gave him a deadpan look, "Severus, this..." she waved her finger in a circle in the air, "... is not just a little dust. This is dust that spawns little baby dust, and the baby dust grows up to do the same until your house is nothing but a dust pile. We..." she went to big windows in front of the house, and opened the curtains, waving a hand to get rid of the dust by her face, "... or I, am going to put some light into this house if it is the last thing I do."

Severus only watched as the bossy little girl so different from anyone he had ever met bustled around the house that his parents had made unbearable to live in after they both passed on to the Summerland.

It took a few days of working in her old ripped dungarees and converse with Severus' wand before Hermione got everything in the house the way she liked. Whenever Hermione picked up Severus' wand, it felt familiar. Normally a witch and wizard using each other's wands was a taboo thing in wizarding society, but Severus had never seemed to have a problem with letting her use his as her's would still have the Trace on it until she was seventeen. She could feel the power coursing through the slim dark wood not unlike her own that remained strapped onto her forearm in the new harness Severus had gifted her, saying that even if she could not use it she should always have it on her person at a moment's notice. It was the peculiarity of holding another's wand whose magic flowed through so different from your own she suspected, but not Severus.'

_Maybe it was because their magic was in sync?_

She chose not to think too much about it as she waved around Severus' who only got ready for the new school year. Though she couldn't for the life of her understand how he had papers to fill out if the year hadn't started yet, knowing he would have his syllabus' completed weeks ago even with his heavier course load.

In those few days though, she watched, and listened to the man she had been cohabitating with. He seemed quieter than normal, and she knew it had to do with the Dark Lord and his coming to terms with his revisiting his old occupation as spy. She didn't pry knowing he would talk to her when he was ready, and if he chose not to, that was okay too. She would be there when he needed someone to listen. She could tell he wasn't accustomed to living with someone as he frequently jumped when she entered the room on the quiet feet she had gained in her brief stint as a human cat during the Polyjuice accident, and he often left the door open when he was dressing or undressing in the bathroom they shared. He had no fat on his body, but in his case it looked as if he hadn't eaten in awhile. In passing by his room one day as he was in the process of putting on his shirt she could see his skin close on his ribs, the paler than normal as it stretched over his usually muscular chest. That day she had taken to cooking their meals to try and get him to how he was used to, although she might have just as well have poisoned him herself and got it over with until he took over cooking regular meals and eating with her in the kitchen. Asking her how she was such a horrible cook while her potions came out at top standards.

She became even more worried when she had started hearing his nightmares and seeing the dark circles underneath his eyes the morning after a full night of them. She had taken to leaving her door open when she slept as he did with his own when she heard his pain filled groans for the first time. Becoming increasingly worse as the days grew, she couldn't take leaving him to his lack of restful sleep anymore and went across the cold hall to find him clutching at the sheets around him as if they were the only thing keeping him from losing it completely and screaming at the top of his lungs. He probably would be at this point if he wasn't a naturally restrained man and had Occlumency shields around his mind even while unconcious.

"Severus," Hermione was hesitant to wake him up, knowing if you woke someone from a nightmare it could be potentially dangerous to either person. "Severus," she shook him gently by his bare shoulders, stroking his cheek as if to wake him as gently as possible. Her worries were right as he woke gasping. A hand gripping her throat, he had pulled her down next to him on the opposite side of where he was sleeping.

"Hermione," he whispered, coming back to himself once who he was holding. The pale moonlight slipping through his dark curtains, he sat up from where he had been on his elbow hovering about her. His feet planted themselves on his side of the bed as if to run away from her while his tense back and bowed back of his black head stayed turned towards her.

Hermione paused for a moment, but not for the reason of his actions, but more of his words. He had said her name. He had never said her name before these whole three years they had grown closer, always maintaining 'girl,' or 'Miss Granger.' Tears pricked at her eyes for no reason at all, but she couldn't allow herself to get emotional while he seemed distressed.

"Severus," she said softly, putting her little hand on his spine in the middle of his back. "Are you okay?"

"I'm sorry," his voice was deeper than normal with sleep and his whimpering from the nightmare. He still wouldn't turn towards her even as she began pulling slightly on his shoulder.

She got up to her knees on the bed and shuffled closer towards him, stopping to the right and just behind. She waited for him to turn to her on his own time. "It's alright." She rubbed his spine until she began to feel it lose some of it's tension as he rubbed his big hands down his face, his elbows resting on his thighs as he looked up to the concerned girl. Just staring.

"Lay back down," she told him, waiting until he stiffly laid back before pulling his head onto her belly while she sat up against his headboard, scraping her fingers down his scalp making him shiver. "Do you want to talk about it?"

He was quiet for a while, and Hermione patiently waited until he sighed and untensed. "Did you know I went to school with Potter's parents?" His voice was low and quiet, a hidden undertone hiding below his words.

She stared up at the ceiling, continuing to comb her fingers through his silky hair that frequently looked greasy rather than shiny due to his frequency over heat filled potions. "I thought you did, I hadn't really given it much thought before."

"The house where you grew up is supposed to have happy memories in it, my parents weren't like your's, girl." he said seemingly switching topics entirely, and then he was quiet for a while, as if he was contemplating on what to say next. "Do you remember the girl I had told you about? The one that I had become friends with before I went to Hogwarts our first year?" She nodded. "Lily was the muggleborn I switched sides for, and saw the Dark Lord for who he truly is."

Her fingers stopped as an unfamiliar emotion welled up in her chest, making it a bit hard to breathe as she listened to him talk about his time in school and his tormentors, his voice laced with an odd fond tilt to it.

_He loved her…_

"Do you still love her?" She kind of didn't want to know, knowing that no one could ever compete with a dead woman. A surprising well of jealousy and mild hatred rose in her throat towards her best friend's mother, and although Hermione knew it was completely irrational and stupid to feel such a thing, she was also confused as to why she actually was _jealous_ in the first place.

She felt his face turn up towards her own on her stomach as he grapes her free hand, pressing a kiss to the inside of her wrist as she scoots down to put her head properly on a pillow. "If I look back on our real relationship, she didn't deserve the love I gave her in the first place. She took me for granted, and when I made one mistake in the heat of the moment, said one horrible and disgusting word, she tossed me aside. So, no. I haven't loved her for a long time even if I do still hold a fondness in my heart for the years we spent together."

"I'll never take you for granted, Severus." She felt like crying again, and fought not to have her chin wobble as she turned her head into the opposite side of the pillow from his face.

He turned her face down to him and pressed a kiss to the underside of her jaw, "I love you too, Hermione."

_Why does he make me feel such a way?_

~.O.~

" _But the most beautiful things in life are not things. They're people, and places, and memories, and pictures. They're feelings and moments and smiles and laughter."_

Hermione stared at Severus from his study's doorway, blinking every few seconds. And stared. And stared. And licked her ice cream cone

"Girl," he said, not looking up and continued to write on his parchment about what seemingly looked like potions ingredients. "What are you doing?"

She said nothing as she walked up to his desk and plopped right beside his papers, staring at his head and waiting for him to look up. All the while swinging her legs and licking her chocolate ice cream. He put his quill down, grabbing her knee to stop the incessant .

"Girl."

"What are you working on?" she asked, picking up a paper and scanning it, but it all looked like jumbles of combined words too complex for her to understand just how they worked together just yet.

He took it back and placed it upon the stacks that grew everyday, and looked to be getting even more frustrated as he cooped himself up in the basement with his cauldrons. "A potion for the Dark Lord, for his human body."

She grabbed his hand, "If you teach me more about them I could help."

He tugged on a curl, "Thank you." He paused as if was about to say something before reconsidering and opened his mouth again, "He has requested that you keep a close relationship with Potter so that when he ultimately does get his permanent body, you will report to him of his and Dumbledore's plans that the Headmaster might not entrust to me."

She looked at his stressed frame a moment, and nodded, knowing he didn't even want her thinking about the Dark Lord at this moment. While he may be endorsing and contributing to the rising of the Dark Lord once again, he maintains that she will stay as far from the once madman for as long as possible.

"I want to go to Diagon Alley."

"I live to serve," he bowed mockingly towards her, grunting when she pushed her little toes into his gut. Then he took her ice cream and bit the curl off, walking upstairs to change from the jeans and t- shirt he had taken to wearing when they were alone.

"Hey!" Hermione complained, following his laughing.

..

As soon as Hermione and Severus entered The Magical Menagerie, they were overwhelmed by the deafening sounds and smells assaulting their senses. There were birds squawking, owls hooting, toads croaking, and cats hissing with the odd snake hiss being drowned beneath it all. Hermione had decided it was time to find a pet, or try and find a familiar as she now knew the castle well enough and she would feel less lonely when she couldn't be with her friends or Severus for one reason or another. She wanted a soft fluffy cat that would love her as much as she could love it, and liked Severus of course. She silently browsed the hissing cats in the cages and felt sorry for them, knowing they must not have liked being all cooped up like they were in the overcrowded quarters.

All of a sudden a orange fluffy purring ball landed into her arms, pouncing from one of the cages stacked straight up to the ceiling.

"Aww!" Hermione cooed at the squished face of the slightly tiger looking tomcat, "Look, Severus! Isn't he adorable?" She bumped her head to the Kneazle, knowing immediately that this was the cat she wanted to take home as he obviously had chosen her as his new mistress . Her decision only solidified when the cat purred louder when Severus ran a line down the creature's back.

As they went to check out, the witch behind the counter gaped at the small girl, wondering how she could have possibly tamed such a horror as the frisky cat.

"Who's that, Severus?" Hermione asked as they sat at Florean Fortescue's, waiting for Severus' replacement of the ice cream he had taken from Hermione that morning. Crookshanks lay curled contentedly in Hermione's lap with his wicker basket sat firmly on the ground to avoid another yowling incident in repeat of the aftermath of his being bought from the Menagerie, blinking lazily up at her as she stroked his head.

Severus looked to where she had pointed at the black and white poster of screaming Azkaban escapee Sirius Black, and scowled so hard she was afraid he would strain his eyebrows.

"Someone who was friends with James Potter," he said briskly, and seeing his look, she didn't believe for one minute that was the end of the story. "From the beginning of Hogwarts Black had been a bully. He only became worse when Potter started taking an interest in Lily." He was quiet for a while as Hermione's ice cream was brought to her. "He was made out to be the one to betray the Potters' location, of the Fidelis Charm in Godric's Hollow, and killing a group of muggles in collateral damage as he did his best to kill a friend that had been a part of their group. Peter Pettigrew." He sneered, "A disgusting little rat. He was the one who had in truth betrayed their location to the Dark Lord, as a Death Eater."

Hermione didn't know how to wrap her head around this new information, that someone who was trusted by their closest friends to keep them safe had betrayed them to their death. "How did he get out of Azkaban? It's guarded by dementors."

"Dementors have been fooled before, girl," he said cryptically, "He is an animagus. As was Pettigrew and their little group of Marauders they called themselves."

Hermione cocked her head to the side, "How do you know this Severus?"

He got a glint in his eye, "One of their friends, Lupin is a werewolf, and they took it upon themselves to become animagi to keep him company during the full moon."

Hermione gasped and covered her mouth, Crookshanks butting her stomach to get her to start petting him again. "Oh, Merlin."

The glint turned mischievous, "I then, in my teenage angst to get back at them and ensure they got caught for breaking the rules, studied to be one myself." The grin faded, "Lot of good that it did."

Hermione begged and begged him to show her his animagus form all the way back to his home, and eventually compromised to learn the Patronus charm to see his animal form. Being aware of the dementors making an appearance at Hogwarts as the Ministry suspected Black would come looking for Harry, his godson, he made good on his promise to teach her all he could in such short a time so that she could better protect herself. From all who might do her harm associating herself with and and the Dark Lord.

The Patronus charm was not something you could study, but it was pretty straightforward. She learned it over the span of several weeks, Crookshanks who had been happily laying on her feet at the time jumping up to run in circles with the misty little arctic fox that was now her protector. She hadn't focused on an exact memory, more like the feeling of her parent's, Severus, and her new familiar's loving vibes.

Severus was beautiful in his animagus form, much like his human one. He was a beautiful, slick, black panther that had fur like velvet and shone with a navy sheen when the light hit him just right, just like his long hair. A tall mass of lean muscle, he came up slightly higher than Hermione's hip when he stood.

" _Oh_ ," Hermione breathed when she had watched him shift for the first time, sliding her hand along his back as she circled him. He purred loudly, head butting her stomach before she knelt to her knees and pressed her head to his large one, looking him in the human eyes he had kept between forms. "You're beautiful, Severus." She thought for a moment, examining how comfortable he looked in his skin. As an idea popped into her head, a smile lightened her face when Severus saw and he licked her cheek with his raspy tongue.

~.O.~

Hermione got to the train early when barely any people were in the station yet, so no one was around to see her hug Severus goodbye. It resembled a ghost train as she walked through the halls to her group's usual compartment, through the years having already staked a claim to each after their years boarding it. She hadn't expected anyone to be in the Slytherin compartment yet as she walked through, but there was a certain pale blonde boy staring out the window to the people milling about outside.

"Hello, Draco," Hermione said as she slid onto the green padded seat, knowing Harry and Ron wouldn't arrive until it was almost time to start on to Hogwarts. Hopefully they wouldn't pull another stunt like last year. He said nothing for a while, Hermione watching him silently as Crookshanks twined around their legs.

Finally, as he turned towards her Hermione could see the dark circles underneath his eyes as his paler than usual skin came off ashy colored rather than his normal cream tone.

 _Oh, darling_ … _He looks like Severus with all those sleepless nights..._

"Did you know?" he asked, his voice thick with fatigue and crossed arms that looked to be shivering in the warm compartment.

Hermione sighed, knowing what he was talking about. "I did."

"How?"

"We helped."

His brows furrowed, anger making it's presence known along his attractive face, "We?" He scoffed, "Uncle Severus. Of course." He lapsed into silence again, "Why?"

Hermione chose her words carefully, knowing the Dark Lord had the ability to sift through minds, though it wasn't entirely probable he had the strength to do it quite yet and didn't want to say anything only her and Severus was to be privy to, "You have to understand Draco, we have to do everything in our power to protect the people we care about."

"I care about my parents!" He burst out, cheeks flushing as he leaped up out of his seat, "And now the Dark Lord is living in my house, and my mother is scared, and even though he is still weak he is still there. All the time, watching, and waiting."

Hermione got up as he finally broke down, tears streaming down his face. Normally she would be disgusted when a man cried, thinking it was a sign of weakness, but there were certain instances that were an exception. She grabbed a hold of his shoulders and hugged his head as he sat back on the edge and sobbed into her stomach, hands clutching the back of her dark robes as Crooks rubbed his body along their pants.

"Your parents care about you more than anything as well, Draco." Hermioen whispered into his bowed head, "That is why they agreed to this decision, to keep you safe even if you don't feel like you are at the moment."

When he settled down, he looked down to the Kneazle's squashed orange face and got a thoughtful look on his face.

"Isn't that the demon cat that always tries to scalp people in Diagon Alley?"

The compartment was then filled with Hermione's surprised laughter and Draco's chuckles, the subject of discussion leaping onto the table and swatting playfully at Draco's now healthily flushed face and headbutting his Mistress.

..

"It makes sense, Harry," Hermione told the boy as the three of them got to the compartment to see a man sitting fast asleep against the window. The Hogwarts Express normally for students only, it was odd seeing the adult in his shabby set of wizarding robes that had been patched in several places. Hermione saw grey in his hair as well that was unusual for a wizard that looked as young as he did, and when Hermione caught the smell of musty fur emitting from him she knew that this was Remus Lupin even before she saw his bag laying on the rack above Harry who sat beside him. Severus had gotten a twisted look about his face when he had told her of Dumbledore offering him a job, knowing full well he would accept as there were limited options elsewhere once he disclosed his condition of being a werewolf.

"Who d'you reckon he is?" Ron hissed quietly, sitting next to her and putting Scabbers on his lap.

"Professor R. J. Lupin," Hermione told him, examining him as she sat down.

"How is it you know everything?" Ron asked her, seemingly exasperated with her already.

She gave him a pointed look, gesturing up to the rack, "It's on his case, Ronald." She turned to Harry who was looking at her lap, where Crooks sat rigidly, "Crookshanks!" She scolded, turning him to the window from where he was looking at Ron's squeaking rat like he was his next meal.

"Keep that bloody thing away from Scabbers!" Ron told her, scowling blackley, putting the ugly patchy thing back into his shirt pocket.

"Don't be mean, Ron," she sneered at him as he patted the lump.

Harry only looked at them with distracted amusement, and Hermione remembered he had a lot on his mind having heard Mr. and Mrs. Weasley talking about how Sirius Black wanted to kill him. And betrayed his parents.

_Honestly, the tact of some people._

They were just talking about Hogsmeade weekends when suddenly the train started slowing. Crookshanks sat up spitting, looking to the window then to the corridor doors as if not knowing which way to look. Harry got up to look outside just as the lamps blew out and it came to a stop, Ron getting up to join him and feeling his way to the window, Hermione just moving her foot in time to keep him from stepping on it.

Hermione smelled death as the air grew frosty around them.

"Somethings moving out there," the redhead whispered.

Hermione knew what it was as the smell got closer, and she felt a stab of fear, hoping with everything in her that the dementors would not come near her. But it was a futile hope. She saw two shapes outside the compartment, and despite knowing they couldn't be the Dementors she cast her charm.

"Expecto Patronum!" She whispered, her little energetic arctic fox that bounded around in a little circle dimly illuminated the room as if the moon was shining in. The now open door showed Ginny and Neville.

"Do you know what's going on?" Ginny whispered as well, as if talking louder would bring something upon them they didn't want. They squeezed into the seats beside Hermione and Harry.

"No," Harry said, looking questioningly to Hermione who only shook her head and stood up. Hopefully the Ministry would count the Hogwarts Express as part of the grounds and not have cause to expel her for her underage magics.

"Your patronus is cute, Hermione," Ginny told her, smiling slightly.

"Thanks, Gin," Hermione said, concentrating on the decay that seemed to be getting closer as she heard a rustle from Lupin who now was awake and standing as well, looking at Hermione then back to the fox that had it's nose twitching up in the air.

"Stay where you are," he said in a hoarse voice, making to leave but the door slowly slid open before he could get to it.

Hermione had just enough time to see a tall cloaked figure that went up to the ceiling, it's grey decayed hand reaching out before her fox bared it's teeth slightly before lighting up like the sun and lunging towards the Dementor; joined by her new professor's wolf as others showed up in the hallway.

Hermione felt drained as she sat down, everyone staring at her once again before Ginny turned and cried out, "Harry!"


	10. 3rd Year Part Two

" _Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak."_

_-Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati_

~.O.~

"Where did you learn to do a patronus, Hermione?" Professor Lupin asked as they sat everything up for their exit from the train. After Harry had woken back up from his nightmare- come- to- life, it was silent in the car after he had heard a screaming woman that no one else had. Hermione suspected it was from when he was a baby. The others had gone ahead of her as she grabbed up Crookshanks to coax him into the wicker basket he hated, cooing at the grumpy cat that would forgive her once she let him out when they got to the large castle so he could explore on his own. "You don't mind that I call you Hermione do you?"

She looked up to him as she gently pushed her familiar into the basket, "No."

She kind of did, Severus is the only professor allowed to call her by her name.

"A professor taught me," she said.

He sounded curious when he asked, "Which professor would teach a NEWT level charm to a third year?"

She looked up to see his reaction, "Professor Snape."

She left him with a bewildered look about his scarred face, wondering if she should have told him that.

_Oh, well._

~.O.~

Hermione snuck down to the dungeons just after the feast under cover of night, as she had done the previous year and would keep doing until he asked her to stop. If he ever would.

"Severus, have you seen-" Hermione stops in the doorway to his living room, and blinks at the scene playing in front of her. Severus is laying on his couch, reading a book over her familiar who just so happened to have laid a property claim on Severus' chest much like he had done in those last few days at Spinner's End after bringing him home. He puts the book down next to him on the floor, raising an eyebrow as he pointedly strokes Crooks along the spine, making his bottle-brush tail rise up into the air as his big paws made hard biscuits on Severus' ribs.

She walks up to stand beside the two boys, hands on her hips, "Traitor," she tells the orange fluff ball who then looked up to her meowing, running his head along her stomach to her hip and batting at a large hanging curl before he hopped down.

Watching his mistress being pulled down on top of the dark man, the large Kneazle knew he would protect the giggling girl from the evil rat man that smelled like garbage. He slinked off in search of tasty rats in the dark crevices of Hogwarts, licking his furry lips. He hoped to find the one her redheaded friend kept in his shirt.

..

Hermione Granger was a pretty mystery to Remus Lupin. When Professor Dumbledore had asked him to fill the Defense Against the Dark Arts position that was open more often than not, he was apprehensive due to his werewolf condition. He was by no means ashamed of being a werewolf, most of the time, but the reactions and recoil on some people's faces came to be a little too much sometimes while he was then forced to face his _otherness_. He had finally given in to the Headmaster's pleads when he had learned of Sirius' escape from Azkaban, knowing that he could possibly make his way into their school through the secret tunnels. Although, it did send a knife to his heart each time he thought of the man as it had for the past fourteen years, wondering all this time _when_ exactly did he turn back to his family roots when for all the time they had been friends he never talked of the Dark in a positive way? It was the least he could do for Lily and James, look after their son, and apparently his friends. Although it didn't look as if Miss Granger needed much protection from him, seeing as how she must be a very bright and talented witch to have mastered the Patronus Charm prior to the beginning of her third year within Hogwarts. Something about the comment of Severus' teaching her itched his brain once she informed him he was the one to take time out of his day to teach a student, and a Gryffindor at that. Something in her voice had hinted at some deeper emotion as her eyes glittered the same way Sirius or James' did when they held a secret they desperately wanted people to know, but was much more interesting to see them squirm.

Remus had never liked the dungeons, they always felt colder than normal on his skin that held more heat than humans. Starting down the hallway where Severus' door was located, it opened and spilled light into the dark as a small figure slinked to stand over the threshold with an orange tomcat at her heels, sliding his eyes to where he stood. He had been on his way down to try and talk to Severus in his private chambers, seeing as he had leaned as far away from him as could be seen as non- suspicious to the students while they sat beside one another at the Great Table. He had never been talkative in their youth towards the friend of his bullies, and it seemed as if he was even more disinclined in his adulthood, but Remus had the desperate urge to try despite that he clearly still blamed him for not doing anything when James and Sirius played their _pranks_ on him. If his goal was to make him feel shamed, even after all these years, he achieved it. It was not out of the realm of possibility with this man.

Remus hid himself in the cold shadows.

" _Eat,_ Severus, I know you didn't eat nearly enough at the Feast," Hermione told the tall man who looked like a lean giant compared to her.

"Yes, Ma'am," he drawled at her.

She put her hands on his shoulders, "You don't eat by yourself, I will send Crookshanks down here to paw at you until you do." They looked down to where he meowed his assent at their feet, rubbing up on Severus' jeans and to Remus' surprise, Severus laughed while picking the small girl up off her feet as she wiggled and laughed, feet dangling freely.

"I will eat now, girl." She kissed his cheek and slid down, ready to leave but Crookshanks began going in circles around their feet, signaling they were being watched.

Their heads snapped right to where Remus stood at the same time, hidden partially by the rough wall. He fought to hold in his intake of breath as he saw Hermione's eyes that had been slitted like a cat's where the light hit them. They turned away from him.

"Goodnight." Hermione told the man Remus had never seen smile at anyone but Lily… _and that was so very long ago…_ who was now smiling at her and even kissed her on her cheek as she had done to him. "C'mon, Crooks."

As she and her familiar passed him, Remus caught the scent of the same thing she had smelled of on the train, the manly overtone he had not recognized until now and not given much thought to, thinking it must have been a father or brother. She smelled like herbs, and something deep and musky.

The same as how Severus had smelled since their years at Hogwarts as students themselves.

~.O.~

She was sorely disappointed with the Hogwarts Divination class. Hermione had always been interested in the subject, even if she didn't believe in it fully, but Professor Trelawney was an absolute looney in her predictions. Even if by some miracle she did predict something real… _other than the apparent prophecy that led to Harry's parents being killed…_ the cooking sherry Hermione smelled around her constantly put them into doubt. She had predicted Harry would be in grave danger this year, but anyone could have said that who knew what had happened for the past two years.

Tea leaves… Hermione scoffed as she made her way outside with Crookshanks at her feet. And Hagrid, oh Hagrid, the half- giant that would think a Chimera would be harmless. As their new Care of Magical Creatures professor, he was in complete control of the creatures they would learn about, and Hermione just knew they would only get more dangerous as she saw he had geagan the year with temperamental Hippogriffs for the class to meet. Draco, in his usual suaveness, got himself scratched in his typical impatience and acted like he was dying instead. Which he was most definitely not by only gaining a new scar to mark his pale arm.

Professor Lupin inspired an emotion inside Hermione that was not unlike how she felt with Professor Trelawney, the dislike was there only because she knew what he had done to Severus, or not done anyway. But overall he had seemed like a good enough teacher with his first lesson being the boggart. Though, Hermione had to marvel at Dumbledore's lack of thought into their Defense professors: the first being the Dark Lord in disguise, the next a fraud, and the last a werewolf.

As she exited the castle into the cold Scotland air, she twitched her nose up into the air as her robes swirled around her moving legs and tangling with Crookshanks down the hill to the Whomping Willow. The tree had eventually recovered after the boys' ordeal with it and the car, but it remained twitchy with the students if they ventured a little too close. A little swat to the head and legs, and the student would go running back down the hill. But with animagi and animals, it was a little more tolerant if you were nice and stroked it's trunk once in a while.

Settling to the cool grass and leaning against the pretty sweet tree's knot, Hermione let her mind drift.

 _You clear your mind,_ Sev's voice sounded through her head as if he sat cross legged in front of her himself. _Let it drift off into nothingness, and let you float on your memories as if they were clear, as if you were looking through freshly cleaned glass. Clear yourself of all emotion and let them fade away, locked away until you call them to the forefront of your mind. Focus on the things around you on the physical plane, not the mental one._

Hermione could feel the spongy feeling of the thick grass underneath her robes, the feeling of Crookshanks' weight on her legs, her fingers carding through his long fur. She could feel the chap of the wind on her exposed face and hands, could hear the rustle of the leaves and birds above her, smell dog somewhere where it must have passed a while ago, and taste the mandrake leaf under her tongue that had been there for just about a month.

Her mind was clear.

Severus had told her animagus meditations were almost the same as if one were practicing for Occlumency, the ability to clear one's mind, which she would learn next year as he wanted her mind protected when she eventually met the Dark Lord. And it just so happened that was what had also helped him become an animagus, so he had suggested she do the same in case she needed to wiggle into somewhere. Not that it would help much if she became into something as big as Severus in his animal form.

As her mind cleared, the mandrake stimulated her psyche after weeks of soaking through her body, and she could feel herself running through the darkness of her mind. Could feel the wind swirling around her sliding through her fur as she gracefully leaped and jumped. And suddenly, she is doing it in a smaller body. The change from her human body to the same as her small patronus was effortless, like sliding into a silk dress, and feeling it's smooth fabric rub pleasantly over her skin.

She felt free.

..

She stalked Severus around the castle, the soft pads of her feet much like a cat's so as to not make so much as a rasp on the stone floor. He was in the teacher's common room behind the Great Hall when she found him, so she sat patiently in the shadows with Crookshanks as he finished his meeting with the other professors. Waiting. She had a feeling he knew they were following him once he had started snapping around corners, making her feel like a cat chasing a very tall mouse. He made her feel playful and embrace her instincts so much like the ones she gained in her post- polyjuice form as she leaped and hopped towards his frequently disappearing cloak around corners, her snow white tail swaying behind her pouncing form.

Then roles were turned as she became the mouse who was caught up in a black figure's mouth, who then carried her yowling little body into his open chambers.

Settling her in front of the hearth, Severus in his black panther body, groomed her until she felt languid and sleepy. Uncurling from where she had been in a ball with her tail wrapped around her nose, she looked up into his black eyes and nuzzled his big cheek. She felt safe, and warm, and loved wrapped up in his body that was easily at least five times of her little size. Their fur made an ironic contrast, light against dark. His the color of the darkest black it looked almost blue, and her's snow white. They were complete opposites the two of them, brought together by fate.

She couldn't imagine what she would do if anything ever happened to him.

_I love him so much…_

It's just a crush, she would tell herself later on when she would catch herself staring at him in class. Looking at him, really, really, looking at him and thinking of how she alone knew who he really was and not the man over the mask. It was a typical schoolgirl crush on the man that she looked up to more than anyone she had ever met.

_It's just a crush._

_I love you, girl…_ she heard in her drowsy head as she put a small paw on his nose.

_I love you too…_

~.O.~

" _Everyone has an untold story hidden behind closed doors, try to understand not everyone is as they first seem."_

Hermione was still angry at Ron as they got ready to go to their first Hogsmeade trip, and she was starting to suspect something was very… odd... with his rat.

"Keep that beast over there," Ron had said just the other day, sneering at her familiar with disdain as he jumped into her lap with a spider in his mouth, not unlike how Severus looked at her two friends from time to time. "I've got Scabbers in my bag, he needs his rest."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but looked to the fluffball who had tensed up in challenge and ran her fingernails down his spine in order to soothe him. It had worked right up until the patchy little thing made it's appearance with it's nose poked up into the air. Crookshanks had leapt onto the disgusting little thing in seconds as if it were a fly buzzing tauntingly above his head that he was determined to kill, no matter what.

_Hermione never could understand how wizards would choose to bring rats and toads to Hogwarts as their pets, although they could have their cute moments. She tried not to judge._

"Hermione!" Ron yelled at her, seizing his bag as Crookshanks sank four deep claws into the side, spitting and slashing as Scabbers jumped out and ran under a chest of drawers.

"Crooks!" she gasped, trying to desperately grab him before Ron got to him. In their attempt to get her familiar off the rat, Ron had hit him with his bag, sending him across the room and into a wall.

Hermione had felt a sharp pang in her chest seeing his body being thrown like a rag doll into the stone wall as she gasped, standing still in her shock for a moment seeing him lay limp on the red carpet. She went to her knees next to her familiar, cradling him in her arms. He seemed fine, no longer yowling as he lay contentedly in her arms while he shook off his stunned surprise, but his yellow eyes remained fixed on the brown lump Ron had in his hand. Everyone in the common room stared at Hermione, to Ron, and back to Hermione, knowing that she was fiercely protective of the half- Kneazle.

She handed him to Harry who took him readily, looking between her twisted face worriedly and to Ron's angry one who had not seen what he had done, too preoccupied with fussing over his rat. He looked up to her with a furious expression similar to the one he always had before opening his mouth and saying something insensitive and absolutely stupid, but was cut off as he got slapped hard enough that it could be heard by the other Weasleys that had seen the whole ordeal from across the room.

"I understand that you were trying to protect your pet, but you ever touch my cat again, Ron," she said in a quiet voice, "and it won't be my cat you have to worry about killing your rat." She turned away from his reddening cheek and walked over to get back Crooks from Harry who had been the only one to hear what she had told their friend, and slammed the portrait door on her way out, much to the consternation of the Fat Lady.

"Did you hear what she said?" Ron asked with a pale face, still soothingly stroking Scabbers. He had seen Hermione's pupils contract into slits much like Remus had in her anger, not once knowing just how close he was to obtaining a perfectly permanent set of claw marks across his cheek to remind him of his crime.

Harry nodded distractedly, the expression on Hermione's face was disturbingly familiar as he had seen it before in passing when Flint had called her a Mudblood months ago. She had the same twisted but expressionless face as then. He loved Hermione, she had always seemed so innocent and loving whenever she was hanging onto you, her arms wrapped around you in a hug and a brilliant smile on her face. But sometimes she would get that look, that chilling look when she saw or heard something she didn't like, and something niggled at the back of his mind as he nodded absently to his redheaded friend.

The other redheads only saw a hurt Hermione and thought of how much of a bloody wanker their brother was, getting his knickers in a twist about a rat he had been saying for years he hated.

..

Hermione had just come from Hagrid's hut after building Buckbeak's case, when a loud bang went throughout the echoey hall she was walking through, and Hermione jumped a foot off the ground as a yowl escaped her mouth. Quietly stalking towards the door in her little fox form, she heard two deep voices talking to one another, finishing each other's sentences. Shifting to her taller human form, she opened the door to two redheaded twins standing next to a scorch mark on the stone of the empty classroom, smoke still rising from it.

She leaned against the heavy door, "Whatcha guys doing?"

It was their turn to jump and whirl around, big smiles on their faces when they see it's only her, "Hermione!"

She smiled, amused they tried to cover up whatever they were doing with their bodies while completely disregarding their singed and smoking eyebrows that were half burnt off, "Why shouldn't I tell a professor you guys are down here, when this hall is closed?"

" _Because you're down here too-"_

" _And we'll give you a present."_

George held out a piece of yellowed parchment towards her after tapping it and saying "I solemnly swear I am up to no good..."

She took it, looking at them suspiciously, as thin ink lines spread like a spider's web from the point of his wand. They joined each other, criss crossed, and fanned into every corner of the parchment as then words began to blossom across the top, great, curly green words that proclaimed:

_Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs_

_Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief- Makers_

_are proud to present_

_The Marauders Map_

" _We figure it was best to give it to you-"_

" _rather than Harry, cause we knew-"_

" _you wouldn't lose it-"_

" _or get it taken up by a professor."_

It was a map showing every detail of the Hogwarts castle and grounds. But the truly remarkable thing about it was the tiny moving dots moving around, miniscule names attached to each ink spot that left behind tiny disappearing footprints. Hermione could see Professor Dumbledore pacing his office in the top left hand corner, Mrs. Norris prowling the second floor corridor, and Severus coming around the corner towards where she stood. Just as she made to hide the words, she saw a name that made her blood run cold, and then boil beneath the surface as everything she knew about it came to the forefront of her mind.

"Thanks guys," she put her hands on each of their shoulders to bring their tall torsos' down to her height, and kissed their cheeks. "Professor Snape's coming down here, don't come out for a few minutes." She smiled sphinx- like, "I wouldn't have told a Professor on you by the way."

She danced out the room, and closed the door as Severus rounded the corner in his panther form. Reaching him, she puts her nose to his cold one and kisses him between the eyes.

" _How did you find me?"_ she asked him as she transformed. Hermione had always found it fascinating how animals could talk to each other, even if they were of a different species. She guessed that it extended towards animagi as well, much like how members of the magical communities could know instinctively that there was another within a crowd of muggles.

" _I always know where you are,"_ He swiped at her playfully as she ran circles around and under his legs, mimicking Crookshanks' actions. " _I can smell you. You could too if you focus on individual smell instead of the whole."_

She nipped at his heels playfully, then yelped as he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck with his .

" _Fred and George gave me this map that shows all the people in the school. It calls itself the Marauders Map."_

He drops her to her feet, staring down at her with an upcurved lip, " _Potter and his little gang of miscreants."_

" _It had Peter Pettigrew on it, attached to Ron. It's the rat that Crookshanks keeps trying to kill."_

The full moon filtered in through the tall windows and hit his eyes that had seemed to darken to blacker than black. " _Smart cat,_ " he purred deeply, stalking back the way he came with Hermione at his heels.

~.O.~

"He knew my parents," Harry spoke of Professor Lupin, whispering to them as they huddled together in the Great Hall.

 _Idiots_. The voice inside Hermione's head sounded suspiciously like Severus, calling the Headmaster a dunderhead as well as the Minister who had given orders for the Dementors to remain around the school. The Great Hall was packed with the students of all the Houses, despite the fact Sirius Black had only broken into Gryffindor Tower to ransake the boy's dorm. Earlier on, Hermione had to jump on Severus' neck when she had told him about Pettigrew, for all the good it did as he tried to slink off and snap the dirty thing's neck. In the end she had convinced him to let her keep an eye on it, and wait for the right time to do what Black had tried to do that night that carted him off to Azkaban.

"Were they friends?" Ron asked, giving Crookshanks who was kneading Hermione's stomach a wary look. He had apologized, albeit reluctantly after Harry had told him to make up with her, and Hermione had accepted but would not forget the sight of her familiar hitting the wall anytime soon.

"Yeah," Harry said, "Professor Lupin and my Dad were best friends, and Sirius Black, and someone that he killed..." Hermione turned out as Harry told a story Lupin had told him earlier in the day as everyone was in Hogsmeade, but started listening while playing with Crooks' ears as he said Severus' name.

"Snape came in with a smoking goblet, and Lupin actually drank it!" Harry said, sounding amazed that his new favorite teacher would willingly drink something from the Potions Master that clearly didn't care much for him. Hermione knew exactly what the boy was getting at.

_You wouldn't sound like that if you knew what your favorite teacher did along with your precious father._

She gave the boys a look, "Professor Snape wouldn't poison him, Harry."

Ron scowled blackly at her, seemingly having forgotten his earlier terror of her, "Why are you always defending him?"

Hermione opened her mouth to refute him, but she realized it was true, "Because, boys, I don't hate him simply for the fact that he has a black attitude."

They looked at her like she was crazy, so she rolled her eyes and turned over to cuddle with Crookshanks in the gradually silencing room, the murmur of whispers dying down to give way to snores.

_Why do I try?_

~.O.~

"You shouldn't be out here, Harry!" Hermione whispered to the invisible boy who sat under her and Ron's table in the Three Broomsticks, the twins having told him the secret passageway through Honeydukes as Hermione had held on to the Marauder's Map, knowing he would get into even more trouble if he were aware of it. He pinched her calf and shushed her as Ron informed them that the Minister had just entered the pub with a few of the Hogwarts professors. Hermione yanked his hair through his cloak in retaliation as she was sure there would be a bruise in a few hours where he had pinched her, as if she needed even more mysterious bruises to pop up along her legs from gods know where. They overheard the group's conversation about Sirius, nothing Severus hadn't already told her, and Hermione could feel Harry climb out from under them as the wooden door blasted cold air into the pub while a seemingly invisible entity slammed it closed.

Hermione and Ron exchanged looks, and went after him.

They found him sitting on a log a little ways off the road back to the castle, snow already piling onto his slumped shoulders with a pained look on his face. They sat on either side of him, waiting for him to say something.

"How could someone be friends for as long as they were, and betray them the way he did?" Hermione felt bad for the boy that had been abused all his life, having figured out so much of his parent's history in one go around. "He was my godfather, and he betrayed my parents."

_Or so he thought, and I can't tell him the truth, least he ask who told me._

Hermione grabbed his cold hand and squeezed it, seeing Ron flash his eyes towards them and get a peculiar look on his face which she ignored, "Sometimes people can hide big secrets, Harry. Even from the people they love the most, for all anyone knows he could have been forced. Or tricked."

Harry stood up, anger and hate filling his face with a look of absolute malice. "No!" he shouted, brushing snow off his pants roughly. His voice was husky, the sort of sound you get when you are trying to hold back every emotion you're feeling from spilling down your cheeks. "He had a choice! And he made it. If I ever get my hands on him, I'm going to kill him. I'm going to kill him the same way my parents were killed all because they trusted the wrong person to protect them."

Hermione looked at him sympathetically, sighing internally.

_Oh my sweet boy. You couldn't kill anyone any more than I could stab Severus in the heart._


	11. 3rd Year Part Three

" _If I could give you one thing in life, I would give you the ability to see yourself through my eyes, only then would you realize how special you are to me."_

_~ Frida Kahlo_

~.O.~

Hermione had set Crookshanks the task of following Pettigrew around when she couldn't, and she found that the rat had a very poor sense of smell seeing as he hadn't smelled either of them as of yet. From what she had heard, he was a poor, timid excuse of a human being, and he was an even poorer excuse of an animagus apparently. She curled her lip at the thought of the small rat- faced boy she had found in their Hogwarts yearbook creeping around their dormitory at night.

Harry and Ron were shunning her at the moment as well. All because of a broom. A broom probably sent by the very person he had threatened to kill not a fortnight ago at that.

Hermione sipped her tea and snorted as she pet Severus' sleek messenger raven, Dougal. Her thoughts wandering off on little legs…

She had often noticed that animals tended to shy from Severus, which was odd given that he was an animagus, or not if they could sense what a large feline he was. Excluding Crookshanks of course who could rub up on him and demand attention all day. Watching when he got mail, it was more often than not given to the Headmaster rather than to him directly or dropped from several feet up into his lap. So, she had given the temperamental raven to her temperamental man for his thirty- fifth birthday in January. Being the only bird in the menagerie that seemed to be the most frisky, she knew he would be the perfect present as they shared the same characteristic bite and scratch personality.

The day she had revealed her hypothesis about Pettigrew, she had seen that the bird didn't easily get scared as she came upon Severus' trashed chambers. As he sat in his favorite armchair surrounded by glass, Dougal pecked at his hair as he was ignored while Severus drank from his tumbler of firewhiskey. Hermione stood in front of him, keeping her face perfectly blank. She had left him to get out his anger earlier in the day, knowing a cranky and angry Severus was not a good Severus to be around. It was only a matter of time until his magic caused devastation if he did not satisfy his physical angers.

His fingers dug into her hips as he suddenly grabbed her and brought her to him, his head coming to rest upon her shoulder.

"Why do you put up with me?" he asks, and Hermione's heart squeezes in her chest.

They have gone over this many times before, and she gives the same answer each time.

She grabs his chin and lifts his face to hers, cupping his cheek, "You need to get it through your head, Severus, that I love you and that comes along with being able to put up with your tempers." She saw his lips part, so she covered them with her palm. "I may be young, but I am not stupid. I would like to think that I know you more than anyone else does, and I will be here until you ask me to leave." He pulled her into his lap, kissing her wrist. "I am not your parents, I am not Lily, Dumbledore, or the Dark Lord. We are just Severus and Hermione together, no one else."

Severus says not one word, he just stares, and stares, until he leans forward until his lips come to the corner of her mouth.

She is hit with an not so suddenly surprising epiphany.

_There's no going back now. No life before him, and no life without him._

~.O.~

"What happened?" Hermione asked the Fat Lady as she came to the entrance of the common room that was now being guarded by trolls in addition to the portrait. Ser Cadogan had been the guard portrait for a while now, and something drastic must have happened for the Fat Lady to come back after Sirius scratched up her previous one.

She had been stuck within a daze ever since she had left Severus once again. She now had to confront her feelings about Severus, but she knew she was also too young to make a decision about something as big as this about someone so much older than her. How could a girl who had just turned thirteen, with many new hormones raging within her body, think herself in love with such a man. _In love… a love such as this…_

On one hand, she wanted to tell herself that it was something entirely wrong, but for hundreds of years not that long ago, there had been marriages between those in just her situation to ensure the continuation of a bloodline. Many girls must have fallen in love with men just the age of Severus, and vice versa. It was simply the matter of her cultural values getting in the way as well as her overacting brain, society telling her that it was absolutely disgusting and wrong to love a man even a few years older than her at her age, let alone one more than twice her age. Society saying that it was abhorred to be seen acting on a love such as this… the man must be one who was considered a predator, and the girl naive enough to be led astray from what others told her was right and acceptable.

_Ah, feelings are complicated… I don't know what I'm feeling… that's it… I have no idea what the warm feeling in my chest means…_

"Sirius Black has returned, dear," the Fat Lady slurred, looking very twitchy as if he would jump out of the darkness at any moment and jump into her portrait to slit her throat. Hermione snapped out of her thoughts. She brought a wine glass to her lips of what must have been alcohol, swaying dangerously as if she would fall straight out of her portrait. "I needed a little of this to build up my courage," she raised the endless wine bottle in her other hand, "That knight let him in, so the Headmaster compromised," she waved the glass to both sides to her vaguely to the large stone like shirtless trolls on either side of her painting who were doing their utmost best at imitating gargoyles. "Such a nice Headmaster, Dumbledore… Go on in dear, you might want to check on that red- headed friend of yours."

She swung open to reveal a once again, crowded common room filled with arguing older year students, dozing first years, and a pale and furious Professor McGonagall looking as if she could throttle a cowering Neville who stood in front of her.

"Harry," she sneaked into the crowd unnoticed, coming to a stop behind him, touching his elbow.

"Where have you been?" he grabbed her in a hug, and she saw Ron glance at them from where he stood next to Neville, looking for all the world like he was being tortured.

"In the library. Sirius Black was here again? How does he keep getting in?"

"He tried to stab Ron in his bed," Hermione got a pang in her heart, and even though she knew Sirius was after Scabbers, it didn't take away the worry that Ron could be possible collateral damage.

_Can't be mad at them for ignoring me about the broom now…_

"Neville, he wrote down the passwords Ser Cagadon gave him for the week and Black found them in the halls somewhere."

Hermione pinched the bridge of her nose, something she had picked up from Severus.

_Dear, Merlin…_

"Yeah," he looked at her sideways from where he had pulled back for their hug looking around the room. "I'm sorry about the broom."

She gave him a look, still displeased at his immaturity, "You and Ron have a habit of getting mad at me for doing things that are to protect the two of you."

He looked slightly ashamed, "I know." They were quiet for a moment, each other seemingly waiting for the other to say something else, but Hermione had nothing else to say on the matter. She had given up on them looking at her true intentions and only seeing that she was just trying to _ruin their fun because all she had were her books_.

"I'm sorry," he nudged her crossed arms, trying to get her to break down.

She was resigned, so she nudged him back. And then smiled.

"Do it again, and I won't bother being mad at you two, I'll just hex you then be on my way."

He shuddered, knowing she would make good on her word, turning to where Ron was coming towards them from where he had left once Harry grabbed a hold of her.

"Scabbers is gone, and look what I found on my bed after that maniac tried to kill me."

Harry knew what was going to happen now, and he had no sympathy for his determined friend. "Ron," he tried warning, but it was too late.

Ron held up three long ginger hairs he dug out of his dressing gown's striped pocket.

Harry stepped back from where he had stood between them.

Hermione's eyes narrowed, and Crookshanks meowed innocently as he rubbed up against Harry's legs, staying well out of reach from the hex his mistress threw at the mean redhead boy with the nasty rat- man.

~.O.~

"Put your hood up," Hermione told Draco as they stood in the shadows of several Hogsmeade buildings before they entered a bookshop in the shadier parts of the town.

Being the last Hogsmeade trip as the Professors were afraid of Sirius roaming around, Hermione knew it was time to grab the one book Severus didn't yet have in his collection that he desperately needed. Ron had abandoned her as soon as Harry was out of sight, still holding onto the thought that she had let Crookshanks kill his stupid rat. Not that she would object if he came to her small limp body in mouth. In fact, the last they had seen of Pettigrew had been when she and her familiar had chased him into Hagrid's hut, and haven't smelled him coming out since. So he had still ought to be in there hiding from his clingy master. Ron's avoidance probably also had something to do with the charm she had placed on him making him think spiders were trying to cuddle with him whenever he sat down after he had accused her familiar of murder.

_Oops…_

"Couldn't Uncle Severus have gotten this book? Or my father?" The blonde asked as he mimicked her actions and pulled up a cowl over their heads to mask their identity, covering his immediately familiar platinum glowing hair.

"He needs it today, and he has meetings with the other teachers about Black so he can't exactly sneak out of the castle." She placed her wand to her throat, and then Draco's, glamouring their voices to sound older and not as high pitched. "Your father also has no admittance to Hogwarts through the floo unless specifically opened by the Headmaster, and he can't particularly strut about the castle as if he belonged here at anytime without a reason."

"What's so special about it?" The nosy boy asked, taking the innocuous looking leather bound book out of her hands as they exited into the sunlight in front of Honeydukes. "It's just another potions book."

"It is for the Dark Lord, Draco." She told him, and he immediately held it back out to her as they avoided the people they knew, knowing they shouldn't be seen together.

They were quiet as they made their way back to the castle, and Hermione had a strong suspicion that Draco wanted to ask something once he began glancing at her out of the corner of his eye every few seconds, "Out with it now, we don't have all day."

"How come Severus tells you so much?" He asks bluntly, apparently deciding that Slytherin tact was not in the cards today as Hogwarts loomed closely.

She looked at him, and only saw simple curiosity, "Everyone has to talk to someone, Draco. Someone who won't judge them for doing the things he has to do."

He studied her face, then nodded in assent.

She changed the subject, "Has the Board of Governors decided about what to do with Buckbeak?"

Hagrid had been beside himself when he had told them the hippogriff was being put on trial after he had scratched Draco that day in class weeks ago. He grimaced, "I forgot to tell you, they are going to make an example of him. To teach Hagrid a lesson about bringing his little 'pets' for the classes to see."

"Oh," Hermione felt bad now. She didn't much feel bad about people being executed, but she didn't think animals deserve to be killed just because they were provoked into doing something by a stupid boy.

She slapped the back of her friend's head.

"Ow!"

"You're an idiot."

~.O.~

" _Just as there are two sides to every story, there are two sides to every person. One that we reveal to the world, and another that we keep hidden inside: a duality governed by the balance of light and darkness."_

_Revenge: Emily Thorne_

~.O.~

" _Hermione.."_ someone was shaking her out of her warm dreams, " _Hermione… Girl..."_

"Severus," she whined, batting at his hand.

She heard him sigh, and then her head was lifted and he slid his legs underneath her to cushion her head, his fingers carding through her curls. She was taking on too much he had seen since the first month of school. Her face had thinned out even more than it already was, giving way to shadows underneath her glittering eyes, and her curls had seemed to become even more unruly with her lack of sleep. Although her sharpening cheekbones and loss of baby fat could be attributed to her growing further into a woman, the dark circles making her face look gaunt rather than sculpted most likely were not.

He smiled down at her as she rubbed her eyes with her fists like a little kid would do in contrast to his previous thought, and his heart squeezed.

They had only known each other for three years, and in that three years, this little girl had brought back so much light into his life he hadn't thought was possible to gain once more since that fateful day Lily had disowned him as a friend. That day he had said that crude word to a girl he had loved. She had brought laughter back into the house that had never known it, and made him feel as if he was the center of her universe.

She smiled up at him, and his heart thumped as her little fingers reached up and rubbed his stubbly jaw. Although most wizards preferred to shave with magic, he kept to his muggle roots and shaved with his father's old blade as wand- shaving didn't shave the shaft of the hair close enough for his tastes. She seemed to like it at the end of the day when it shadowed his jaw anyway.

"That old fool shouldn't have given you that time turner in your third year," she snuggled up and nuzzled her face into his stomach. She had always been such a physically affectionate child, and it didn't seem as if she would grow out of it. Though, he couldn't say he minded one bit.

"I would have done it eventually though anyway, might as well be now. I'm still taking the same classes I would take next year, anyway. Besides, it's almost over." She blinked tiredly up at him, sitting up on his lap to avoid falling back asleep before she could make her way back to her own bed, and wrapped her arms around her neck. "You look how I feel." He sat underneath her in his white wrinkled dress shirt halfway unbuttoned, bare feet touching the carpet Hermione had insisted on covering the cold floor with to make it more homey.

"You look how you feel," he wrapped his arms around her small frame, talking into her hair.

"What were you doing? You've been working for hours." She mumbled into his neck, starting to doze off once more. "Did the book help?"

"Yes, girl. I found the answer." He pulls back slightly and kisses the side of her head. "Your book helped immensely."

"What answer?"

"I found the potion that will bring back the Dark Lord's health."

Her eyes snapped open, and she pulled back. Looking to him astonished and not at all surprised, but her thoughts turned confused at the look on his face. Cocking her head to the side in question.

"You're not going to like it."

~.O.~

Hagrid looked horrible. He did not cry, nor throw himself down on our necks, but he did look like a man who didn't know where he was, or what to do. Hermione felt tears brim in her eyes as she threw herself at him, breathing in the musty smell of his coat of fur.

"I'm sorry, Hagrid," she choked out, knowing that if Crooks was about to be killed she would be crying non- stop and refuse to come out of her room while she placed him in about a million protection bubbles not even she herself could break back through.

He patted her back as she pulled away and wiped away the stray tears that had fallen, "I know, 'Ermione. Thanks for yer help with the case."

She set about making tea for the boys, trying to calm herself as she was right up until the moment she shrieked so suddenly that she dropped the milk jug, the others reacting to the unexpected sound. Having not smelled him as he was covered in the white liquid, she watched as the dazed rodent picked himself up to his feet.

"'Mione?" Harry asked, but then saw the source of her surprise trying to scurry across the floor.

Hermione quickly caught the shifty rat by his bald tail and dropped him into Ron's hands. He grabbed the struggling thing and held him up to the light; thinner than ever, large tufts of hair had fallen out leaving wide bald patches, and he writhed as though desperate to free himself.

"He looks pretty good for a _dead_ rat," she told him, turning from where he looked up at her and opened his mouth, but she didn't want to hear it. Didn't want to hear anything he said at all lately for that matter. Then she heard voices outside and went to the window, "They're here."

Watching the Minister, Headmaster, and the executioner, Mcnair, trudge down the hill towards Hagrid's hut and past the pumpkin patch where they crouched behind, Hermione felt an overwhelming anger in her chest as she saw Dumbledore's silvery beard shining in the dying light. He was revered as one of the most powerful wizards of the century, yet he couldn't help save a simple hippogriff's life.

_Or it benefits him none to see Hagrid happy and a single beast alive and roaming around the castle grounds. Not worth the trouble of bringing more attention down on him._

The boys started making their way around the patch as soon as the wooden door closed, but when they saw Hermione still crouched down, they paused.

" _Hermione, hurry up!"_ They whispered furiously at her, beckoning her to hurry up the hill before the adults saw they were out of the castle this close to dark. " _They're going to see us!"_

She made a split second decision, " _Harry, give me your cloak!"_

He knew not to argue with her, knowing the others would be coming out at any moment, and handed over the invisibility cloak they had used to get out of the castle.

" _Be careful,"_ he told her right before they hauled up the hill and her body became invisible to the naked eye.

Going up to Buckbeak, she ran a hand over the soft feathers situated between his big orange eyes, and whispered to him as she untied his rope. Lowering the hood of the cloak just enough for him to see it was her, she hoped the little bit of cat in her from the polyjuice last year prompted him enough to trust her without attacking like he did Draco. Or distrust her as other animals seemed to act around Severus.

" _Come on, Beaky,"_ she whispered, picking up the ferrets Hagrid must have been feeding him to lure him into the woods where she could tie him to a tree so he wouldn't wonder off.

"That's a good boy," she stroked him once more as he bowed down on his knees, munching on his snacks. "I'll be back to get you later."

Running back up the sloping hill, she saw Ron running after Pettigrew who had jumped out of his arms, and end up right out of reach of the furious Whomping Willow just as a dark shadow emerged from the forest shadows, streaking toward him. Hermione's heart skips a beat as she yanks back the hood of the cloak and yells at the same time as Harry…

" _Ron!"_

But it was too late.

Sirius, in his animagus form of a large black dog, dragged the boy who got on her last nerve but still loved, completely under the willow tree by the arm and down the hole that led into the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade. Harry, the other boy she loved like a brother, stayed true to his savior aspect personality and followed them down the hole while the tree continued to bat at him as if he were a baseball and the large plant wall the batter.

"Stupids. Idiot. Complete _bloody_ idiots," Hermione muttered, conjuring a patronus to send to Severus and bring him to where she knew he would not want to be with history such as his. She could only hope he would get there in time. "Always getting into absurd _adventurous_ situations."

Crookshanks, who had appeared along with the black dog, pressed the knot of the trunk to freeze it as she entered the very dark tunnel after him that seemed to go on for ages until it rose and twisted with dim light at the end a short way in front of her. Emerging out into a very disorderly and dusty room that had paper peeling from it's scratched walls, Hermione noticed stains all over the floor, and boarded up windows. It looked as if a spell had been cast onto it to repair the worst of the damage, but there was only so much magic could do if the bones were scarred deep enough, and Hermione was surprised it looked this way after so many years. Based on the mended and torn wallpaper, this had to be the place Remus changed during the full moons. Such as tonight.

"Bloody hell," Hermione whispered, knowing they had to get out of here fast, but also knew they weren't that lucky.

Quietly as she could, she crept up the stairs, following the shiny stripe in the heavily dust coated floor lined with footprints. Crookshanks stayed by her feet, meowing up at her as they heard a yell that sounded suspiciously like Harry's, and then another followed by a thud and Ron screaming out. Entering the room, she found a strange sight indeed. One that would have made her laugh if it had been in any other situation: Ron stood over a wrestling Harry and Sirius, one hand trying to grasp at his friend's shoulder, the other wounded one dripping blood onto the floor while still managing to hold onto his rat. Crookshanks had decided to join the fray and was clawing at Black's face and chest, getting Harry at some point and marking him across the side of his neck.

The redhead saw her first and yelled, "' _Mione! Do something! They're trying to kill each other!"_ Then his eyes shifted to the people she had smelled coming up the stairs behind her, and his eyes flooded with relief. As well as distaste.

Remus had pushed her aside with his wand drawn, sending the two fighting men flying in opposite directions, and Severus moved to stand between her and the side of the room Sirius had landed on. No matter how small a space it was, he was going to put himself between them no matter what.

Remus went to help Sirius up as Ron stood by Harry, and Hermione got a good look at at the man who had wasted years in Azkaban, and felt a smidgen of sympathy but then remembered he could have gotten Severus killed all those years ago with a stupid prank. His mass of filthy matted hair as long as her own hung limply down to his waist, and if his eyes hadn't been blinking in their sockets she would have mistaken him for a vampire. His pale waxy skin stretched over his bones like paper, and his veins shone through under his many tattoos as the poor light highlighted the darkness that was already there.

"Where is he, Sirius?" Remus asked, bewildering anyone who had no clue as to what he was after. Mainly the boys who blinked at Sirius' expressionless face as he pointed to Ron, who still held onto the struggling vermin that was Peter Pettigrew.

"Professor Lupin," Harry spoke up, looking shiftily to a now twitchy Sirius, "What's going on? Why are you defending him? You know what he did to my parents!" He still looked as if he would lunge at him, but saw the angry cat in the middle of them who had been thrown aside as well as they bristled at the lot of them.

Remus was showing the signs of the closeness of the full moon quite clearly now. "Sirius wasn't the cause of your parents death, Harry. Peter Pettigrew was."

Harry grew pale at the name, and now looked uncertain, "You're lying. You said he died."

"I was wrong." Remus nodded to Ron who now had a lump in his robes from where Scabbers now lay, his wand hand giving a little twitch, "He turned himself into the Weasley family rat while gaining information to use once he made his way back to the Dark Lord. Give it to us and we will show you."

The silence was an entity of it's own, only broken by Ron's protest.

"You're both _mental_."

And then a hiss and ripping fabric as Crookshanks followed his mistress' nod and clawed at Ron's ragged robes to catch the rodent in his teeth.

"Hermione!" Ron yelled at her, trying to get to his pet as Harry held him back with doubt written on his face, "Let him go! I'm going to kill that bloody cat!"

"Ron!" Harry screamed at him, "Let them do it!" Ron stopped struggling, now looking at Harry as if he had lost a few marbles of his own.

"Calm down, Ron," Hermione told him, just as Pettigrew turned around in her familiar's jaws and raked his tiny claws across the face, making him yowl in pain. Remus went to grab him. Spells and colors bounced off in a line behind his tiny scurrying and abused body as Hermione went to a bleeding Crooks. Severus followed beside her, making sure nothing hit her small body.

"My poor baby," she cooed as she picked him up right at the time one of the men's charms hit Pettigrew and made his small rat body twist madly. His head sprouting from the little body, limbs elongated, and in the next moment, a short man not much taller than Hermione stood wringing his hands where Scabbers once stood.

Ron whimpered.

Sirius Black gave a yell of " _He's mine!"_ that was followed by Professor Lupin screaming at him, and a tense Severus was knocked aside by the tattooed man as the two other boys cowered and ran to their friend who stood behind their most hated professor. Once again, the grown men forgot they were wizards and tried to settle things with violence like typical men, so Hermione took it into her own hands to render the cowering man unconscious.

Man and boy alike turned to the girl in their midst, who mimicked the yellow glare the familiar in her arms was given them.

"You're all simply _infected_ with stupid," she told them all, excluding Severus of course who had not said a word since entering the Shack. "Bind him up before he wakes up." She shook her head, following behind Severus as he went to the stairs, " _Wizards."_


	12. 3rd Year Part Four

" _The prisoner, who now stands before you, was caught red handed showing feelings. Showing feelings of an almost human nature. This will not do."_

_~ The Trial: Pink Floyd_

~.O.~

Hermione and Severus were the first ones out from under the Whomping Willow, followed by Harry, Sirius, and a now conscious and once again sobbing Pettigrew who was tied to Remus and Ron.

"I shouldn't have asked you to come out here," she told him as they exited the tunnel as the others followed down the stairs. "I know you hate this place."

"You shouldn't have been in there in the first place," he told her, still looking tense as he shot a loathing glance to Sirius and Harry who stood off to the side. "If Lupin had shifted already they would have been cleaning you off the floor by now, him as well since I would have killed him and be well on my way to Azkaban."

She gave him a look, now seeing his face twist and jam a hand into his robes, "Don't be so crass, Severus." She turned back to him as she heard him curse and pull out a vial of brown liquid, and it dawned on her as the clouds shifted to reveal the full moon she had almost forgotten about in the chaos. "He didn't take it today did he?" She asked, but she knew the answer was no as Remus gave a sudden shout and doubled over.

After whispering in his furry ear, Hermione let Crookshanks leap out of her arms and into the dark forest.

"Remus!" Sirius yelled as Hermione yelled at Harry to move away from the shifting werewolf. "Harry run!"

Lupin's limbs had begun to shake, and a terrible snarling noise had risen in the back of his throat that sounded more like an animal growling than any noise a human could ever make. His head lengthened, his arms and legs popping into a curve much like a wolf's as they shot up in size, and his shoulders hunched in pain as his raggedy clothes ripped from his body as hair sprouted from any visible clear skin into a thick pelt.

Hermione moved to grab Harry from the wolf's reach with Severus behind her, but she instead had put herself in the circle of motion and was raked across the chest. Severus had pulled her back in time though, and only her shirt was ripped, revealing the time turner hidden underneath her robes.

As the werewolf reared back, snapping its long jaws at them, Sirius disappeared and in his place was a large dog almost half the size of the werewolf. The werewolf wrenched free of it's binding to Peter and Ron, making them fall to a heap on the ground which gave Pettigrew the perfect opportunity to seize Lupin's fallen wand and transform himself back to his rat form, following the path Crookshanks had made into the Forbidden Forest. Sirius and Lupin rolled down the hill out of sight, snarling and yelping following them on their way down.

Harry breaks out of Hermione's grasp as well and goes after them, all the while she doesn't notice as Severus grabs her shoulders in a steely grip as they fall to their knees in front of each other, "You stupid, stupid girl!" Terror was written all over his face, but not only for her, but for seeing the werewolf that had tormented him for years.

She finally sobs softly, giving into all the pressure of the night's events and almost having her chest skinned by the werewolf, and grabs onto his forearms before bowing her head, "I'm sorry. This wasn't supposed to happen, it wasn't..." she cuts herself off knowing that crying was going to help nothing, although that thought didn't seem to stop her tears as much as her words. She hears Ron tell them in the background that he was going to go get help, and then the pounding of his feet as he runs off clutching his still steadily bleeding hand.

"Hermione," Severus tries to calm her unsuccessfully, pulling her to her feet and burying her face in his coat. "Hermione, you need to calm down. The dementors will know Black is here by now, and Potter went after him and Lupin."

She pulls back sniffling, and nods, pulling him to stand behind the willow tree and lifting the chain of her golden necklace over his neck.

She turns the dial, and then they were flying backwards in time.

~.O.~

"I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore," Hermione told the man standing in front of her and Severus outside the Hospital Wing's doors, "You trusted me with the Time Turner and I let you down by losing it in all the chaos."

He smiled at her understandingly and nodded, eyes flicking to a silent Severus and waves them by from where he had stopped them as they exited from talking to Harry and Ron. They walk away out into the dark night, and Hermione slides her hand into the lining of her robes to touch the golden hourglass that lay within them.

She looks up to his stony face, and sighs, "You know we had to let him go, Severus,"

He looks down to her, "I know."

He says no more as Hermione resigns herself to his silence until she could show him the consolation prize she knew would not exactly cheer him up so much as temper his anger into something useful.

Though not unfounded, Hermione could understand his reaction to their situation, he was reacting exactly how she suspected him to them rescuing Sirius from the dementors and sending him off on Buckbeak. Severus had not wanted to do it, that much was clear, but the Headmaster had expectations of people, and if they were not met, it would cause more problems than it was worth. She had not been elated after the fact either, far from it knowing how it was affecting the man next to her, but she knew helping Black escape would help Harry in the long run as well after he was mistreated so much by his own blood. Family was everything to him even if the decent ones were in short supply.

Hermione takes Severus' hand, and leads him into the Forbidden Forest.

Walking through the dark and dangerous world they had entered, Hermione felt at peace where normally others would feel creeped out by the quietness of it all and the shining eyes blinking out at them from the tall trees and berry bushes.

"What are we doing here, girl?" he speaks up finally, without her having to prompt him into talking and squeezing her hand to show her he was not being silent with her, but was only displeased with how their day had ended so far.

She motions to the opposite side of the small clearing they had entered, in which there was Crookshanks, batting at a dirty little scurrying rodent on the prickly forest floor.

"I have a present for you. Crookshanks was sweet enough to catch him for you." She can feel his gaze flicking to the two animals, and to the side of her face, "Do with him what you will, but we cannot allow him to take our place with the Dark Lord. Gods know what he has heard scurrying around the dungeons."

She raises her gaze up his tall figure to his burning eyes, looking at her as he never has before, and she shivers at the intensity of it.

"No," he drawls, his eyes lighting up with something unreadable as he pulls out his wand, "We wouldn't want that."

Severus' promise to himself at a certain point last year in which he saw the darkness on Hermione's face after pushing Flint down the stairway floats through his mind…

_I will not allow her to succumb to the same darkness I have… but she will not be executing the punishment I have in mind..._

Crookshanks retracts his claws and holds his tail up jauntily high as he struts towards his mistress and his master, meowing up at them cutely as Hermione smiles and picks him up, butting his head with her's.

"Good boy, Crooks," Hermione whispers to him as she kisses his head right in the middle between his ears.

The Kneazle purrs loudly as terrified squealing pierces the air. _Mistress and Master safe from the smelly rat man now…_

~.O.~

"Snape has changed," Sirius tells Remus as they sit on the dusty couch within Number 2 Grimmauld place after moving Remus' few things into his new room just down the hall from the Black family heir's.

Remus looks to him, searching his face and waiting for him to say something else. "He has."

"Harry's friend, the girl-"

"Hermione," Remus supplied for him.

"Hermione, she is a very clever witch." He paused. "They seem close. From what I've seen."

The werewolf nodded, knowing he was broaching the subject of what he had witnessed many times before when no one else was watching. Hermione looked at Severus much more than any other student did while they sat in the Great Hall…

They pass each other in the Hall, and Severus passes her with one of his signature snarky remarks but leaves with a slightly different smirk than his usual snarl…

That one time he had happened upon them as the girl exited his chambers in the dungeons… to which no student should have been allowed into unless they were family…

He allows her to touch him as no other were permitted to touch in such a way…

To boss him around…

"They were arguing about something when they broke me out of the tower at Hogwarts," Sirius was saying, his words slurring slightly, not used to the alcohol content of the firewhiskey he had not had in over a decade. His eyes were far away from their conversation as he talked without really hearing what he was saying, "We've all changed, a lot."

_Sirius stood stroking Buckbeak after bowing to him, his ears picking up only snippets of the man he had hated so much in school, and his godson's tiny little friend. He had to admit he wasn't paying attention much until he heard Harry's name come up…_

" _... needs someone who will take care of him. Someone that will love him." Sirius watches as they glance back at him occasionally. It seemed as if what Hermione had been saying got through to the greasy man as he straightened his shoulders._

_Severus' head bowed from where he could see them as Hermione looked up to him with an open and pleading face, the face which lit up with a smile when Snape mumbled something at her which he couldn't hear._

_The breeze rustled the girl's wild hair which sent her scent toward Sirius, and he found it odd that even if Severus was standing in front of her from his vantage point as they walked towards him, it occurred to him that they smelled exactly the same. Nothing of a girl's natural feminine scent washed over him, only something purely male that caused his animagi self rise to challenging attention._

" _I_ haven't seen someone tell Snape what to do since him and Lily were friends, and him actually listen." Sirius said, breaking out of his hazy thoughts and putting his crystal tumbler down onto the coffee table. "Or, look at him the way she does."

Remus' face was staring down at his own drink as his friend bored a hole into the side of his face, "I've noticed it too."

_But she never looked at him the way this small girl does…_

"What are we going to do about it?"

"There is nothing to do, Sirius." Remus finally looked at him, "We have tormented that man long enough, it is time to stop." He knew his words were fruitless, once Sirius Black got something in his head, especially concerning Severus, it was hard to get him off of it. "The man saved your life for Merlin's sake, if it weren't for him, you would be rotting away in Azkaban. A shell of what you are now."

Sirius got his signature stubborn look on his face, not listening to the man sitting next to him. He drinks his firewhiskey, and starts making plans to see how close his childhood rival was to Harry's best friend.

_A man such as he should not be allowed to put his hands upon such a young innocent girl as she…_

Maybe a time consuming task such as this will pull him from his thoughts on his years in Azkaban in addition to becoming a part of his godson's life.


	13. 4th Year Part One

" _Even an animal, if you show genuine affection, trust gradually develops… If you always showing bad face and beating, how can you develop friendship?"_

_~ Dalai Lama_

~.O.~

He felt his tongue flicking out of his mouth, tasting the air around him for his master as his belly grew cold from the pale marble floor. _He didn't like cold things._ It was a very cold place where he had been stranded after his master disappeared. It was very hard to find warm places where he used to be. He could hear him calling to him, could taste the scent of other people in the air as his master called out to him, summoning him to his side. The heavy oaken door which veiled his master from the world was cracked open, in anticipation for his arrival. He couldn't control his body, but he didn't fight it as his little heart beat faster at finally being able to wrap around the warmth of his human after so long of being cold and hungry. Rats didn't taste so good either after such a long time of feasting only on their warm blood, he craved _more._

He slithered into the room and onto a carpet that was a welcome warmth from the frigidness of the tile. A man was sitting in the armchair he was headed to, talking to other people in the room that he wasn't particularly interested in at this exact moment as he finally laid eyes on his Lord. He was concerned about the emaciated man as he slumped into the plush cushions surrounding him. A very pale man he was, made even more so by the contrast of the dark cloth surrounding him. He looked so much weaker than he had previously on any other day with his thick black hair hanging over his red eyes, but his familiar voice was strong today, stronger than his body would imply.

The man reached his hand out to him as he wound himself around his other arm and neck, and was content to close his eyes until the other strangers in the room left. He was dozing lightly when he felt a hand on the sweet spot on top of his head, causing him to hiss lightly in a surprised mock purr. His eyes were heavy in sleepy pleasure as he barely registered the woman's voice in the other language his master spoke, continuing to softly rub his head.

"She's beautiful, my lord," he opened his eyes just enough to see wild curls framing carmel eyes and a tall dark haired man just beside her before his heavy lids slid closed once more.

Miles and miles away, Harry Potter's eyes snapped open, his chest heaving as he startles at the snap of an apparition outside the Burrow.

_What was that? Who were those people?_

Padding silently past a snoring Ron, Harry looked out the window down to the front yard where Hermione and Snape made their way through past the apparition line, holding hands as her enormous cat twisted around their ankles.

_What were they doing together? And why were they still holding hands?_

~.O.~

Severus was looking at her as they walked across the yard, and she knew what he was thinking. She always knew what he was thinking.

They had gotten up two hours before dawn to meet the Dark Lord one last time before school started, and she got the crazy idea to ask him to pet his familiar. She just had looked so different from any other snake she had seen, and rightly so as she was bound to a man who had died once before. In her eyes, Nagini was so beautiful in all her green and purple shining scales much like a mermaid's, she fit the _immortal_ Dark Lord in every way possible.

Hermione now thinks back to the first time she had met Tom Riddle in all his glory outside of the book she helped purge him from.

" _My Lord," Hermione bowed in front of the wasted man, taking his hand and kissing it as he sat in Lucius' favorite dark purple velvet chair. She could feel her heart beating wildly in her chest, willing it to calm least he hear it although she knew Severus could hear it clear as day._

" _Up, Hermione," He put a gentle hand on her head, allowing her rise to her feet. "Leave us," He told Severus and the Malfoys' who had been hovering behind her._

_Hermione looked to Severus who looked wary at leaving her until she nodded her head at him to follow the blonde family before the Dark Lord noticed his hesitation. He may be weak, but he would not forget insolence when he gained his strength back._

" _I do not much say this to many people," he began as he turned back to her after staring at the fire for a few silent moments, his red eyes gleaming in the dark room. "But thank you for getting me out of that prison of a diary."_

Hermione was absolutely stunned at his show of human personality, seeing as how Severus had spoken often of how he had not shown much emotion once he had begun to lose his wits about him shortly before he killed the Potters. Even so, she had not once seen anything of the sort, in human form nor in his leather bound prison. Now, she almost felt a bout of sympathy for the man who had killed so many people in his previous life, her heart aching slightly at the life she had learned he lived when he was just a boy. Almost. It was an all too familiar but different childhood story in which Severus and Harry both shared with him. Although, it would take much more than a simple thank you from a man who had instilled fear into the wizarding world to convince her that he was really a good person and it was not all just an act of his regard that he held her in.

_But… it certainly helps that his opinion of her allowed her and Severus into his immediate inner circle… we shall just have to wait and see how he acts in regard to Harry… will he try to kill him once more?_

She knew his mood could change at the drop of a hat. Once again, according to his old life choices anyway.

_She smiled at him slightly, "Thank you, My Lord. It was really Severus though, he was the one to show me the truth about you."_

_He nodded to her, slowly raising the glass he held to his lips. This was when he had first gotten his new body and could still do actions on his own, his body having deteriorated at an alarming rate in just the past several months without the right ingredients to the cure Severus had worked out._

_That damning cure…_

" _My Lord," Hermione began hesitatingly, "If I may ask one more boon?"_

_The Dark Lord laughed loudly, clapping his hands together once as he leaned forward to her slightly, "You have moxie, Hermione." His smile continued to grace his face as if he were truly entertained by her bravery, "For my favorite new girl, you may ask."_

" _I would ask of you my Lord, if you would allow Harry to live once you regain your power once more." She requested of him, carefully gaging his now reserved but still bemused expression for his answer._

_He chuckled softly this time, "Such moxie," he said as if lost in thought as he then gave his promise, "I give you my word, Harry Potter will not die by my orders, or my hand."_

Severus, for the first time ever, hadn't believed her when she told him of the additional reward she had gained for freeing Tom Riddle's soul.

"He let you touch her."

Hermione raised an eyebrow, one of the many habits she picked up from him, "Yes."

"How? How do you make people love you in the way that you do?"

She blushed and looked down smiling, but it gradually faded, "He doesn't seem like the same person you talked about, Severus. He's not the same person who tried to kill Harry when he was a baby at least." She saw the blank look on his face and sighed, "I know what we have to do, Severus, and I know what he's done. I'm not naive enough to simply disregard his past, and I'm not making excuses for him, or for what we will have to do serving him. I am just saying what I'm seeing from him this go around, it is all I have to judge him off of that had been firsthand experiences." She stopped him as they got to the bottom of the steps leading to the front door of the Burrow with a hand on his elbow. She raised her hands to the sides of his neck, "I have to make him feel something for me, Sev. It might not stop him completely if he ever decides we are no longer of use to him, but it may help us in the long run if he hesitates just long enough not to kill us before allowing us to escape. If he trusts us more than any other Death Eater he has, he will be less inclined to think of us as moles in his Death Eaters when you start reporting to Dumbledore and include us even more within his plans."

He stared at her once again for a moment, not allowing a single thought to escape onto his face.

_He's been doing that a lot lately…_

He ran his lips over both or her pulsing wrists after bringing them down from where they had held onto his neck, "You, my dear, are an exceptionally talented and intelligent little witch."

Her eyes crinkled as her lips turned up, saying, "I know," just as the door opened to a disheveled Harry whose hair was all over the place.

Hermione's smile widened, and launched herself at her best friend who caught her around her waist as she buried her nose into his chest. "Harry!" He had gone through a growth spurt over the summer months so he was a few inches taller than her now, just an inch shorter than Ron, but still a way to go before catching up to the man behind her.

He laughed in an odd kind of way as if something lay beneath it, not seeing the way he peered over her shoulder to Severus with an odd look on his face to go along with his laugh. The other man only raised an eyebrow at the boy, putting a hand on Hermione's back to move her aside as the two teenagers broke apart.

She looked up at him with a smile on her face, "I'm going to talk to Molly." They could hear Mrs. Weasley and Ginny talking in the lighting kitchen, the rest of the house stirring into wakefulness in preparation for the rest of the day.

Hermione nodded up at him as she moved Harry to the inside of the door and closed it behind her as the dark man swept past them into the living room.

"Why is he here?"

Hermione frowned at him as they followed Severus' footsteps towards the kitchen, "Dumbledore asked if he could accompany us to the World Cup because of the Death Eater attacks."

There had been an increasing number of Dark Marks lingering in the sky from Voldemort's followers who had put out the word he was no longer _dead_ , but as of late, he continued to relay orders through Severus and Lucius to keep his state of weakness under wraps for the time being and not have the Death Eaters running about wildly. Having made this decision, they had also been given the responsibility of coordinating an attack on the World Cup to show to the world that he was no longer weak and afraid of an infant failing him down again. No matter that he was, it was simply a matter of logistics that his followers were simply too afraid of Severus and Lucius, recognizing that they had been in Volemort's inner circle all those years ago, and took their word that they had been put in charge.

Hermione's disagreements that the Dark Lord simply needed patience to show the world he was strong, and wait until he regained his health, were gently rebuked in favor of his impatience.

_All hell was going to break loose… all because men, no matter how intelligent or old they might be all ran with their ego over their wits._

Harry now had a scowl on his face which Hermione saw and stopped him just outside the door leading to the kitchen. "You don't have to like him, Harry, and you don't have to talk to him. But you do have to accept his help, for no other reason than Dumbledore trusts him."

She turned to push open the door as Harry grabbed her hand before she did, having an impatient look about her face he saw once she turned back to him. One he didn't often have directed at him, that he saw anyway, or that she directed much at the people she loved such as the Weasleys. She had been getting that look a lot when someone talked down about Snape he realized…

… _maybe she always had it._

"Do you trust him?" He asked, but had a feeling as to what the answer was.

She didn't hesitate, "I do."

Harry didn't follow after her in the kitchen, knowing Mrs. Weasley would put him to work, so he went into the garden to await the rest of the house to wake and watch the dawn break over the hill, thinking about Hermione.

She has always been this way, he decided.

~.O.~

"Hermione," Arthur said as they all got ready to leave the house, Bill, Charlie, and Percy just coming down for breakfast as they got ready to depart from the house seeing as they would be apparating and not arriving by Portkey.

"Yes, Mr. Weasley?" Hermione asked, crossing her little beaded bag that held an Undetectable Extension charm on it she had gotten from Severus for her new birthday, the Time Turner last year having messed with her months. The object in question places gently into an impervious box in the bottommost of the bag for safekeeping.

"I've told you," the tall thin man smiled at her, "Call me Arthur."

Hermione grinned back at him, watching as the others wrestled with putting on their bulging backpacks. "Arthur."

"Well, the Portkey holds only so many people, it being so small and all. Severus offered to side- along someone, and I thought you might put up less of a fuss than the boys," He looked towards his sons, Ginny, and Harry and saying almost to himself, "Have no idea why. He's perfectly hospitable."

Hermione almost doubled over laughing, but couldn't help a small surprised giggle from escaping through her fingers.

_Perfectly amicable when he's not teaching a classroom full of dunderheads who won't look past their noses in order to get to know him or at the very least listen to his potions instructions._

She saw the man in questions' feet come quietly down the winding stair, "Of course, Arthur. I don't mind. And I agree, he's perfectly... hospitable."

_Towards me…_

The room went silent at the sight of the Potions Master as he got to the bottom of the steps, save for one _whispered_ "I didn't know he had anything other clothes that made him look like a bat" from Fred and George simultaneously. Mrs. Weasley passed them with a slap to the head saying how glad she was that Severus was there to help keep her boys and her girls safe, Arthur agreeing with his wife. Wearing his usual frock coat, the rest of the students in the room were not accustomed to seeing Severus without his teaching robes on, and although it wasn't much of a change, they were each apparently still shocked their uptight Professor would change any of his ways in the first place.

Hermione and Severus made their way with the group to the Portkey side by side, with Ginny occasionally glancing nervously at the man on the other side of her friend as they talked. Harry mimicked the redheaded Weasley, though more stealthily than the girl as he was unnoticed up until Hermione grabbed Severus around his waist, him placing his arm around her shoulders asHermione smiled at him pointing towards the boot he was supposed to have ahold of.

..

"I wouldn't give bets to him," Severus whispered in her ear as they exited the magical tent Hermione just absolutely loved. "He's got debts to some goblins."

She grinned up at him after looking at the man in the yellow and black Quidditch robes with a large picture of a wasp on the chest. "How would you know that, darling?"

"A little bird told me," he had his mischievous look glittering in his eye. "Might want to go warn your twins." Who were at the moment counting out galleons, sickles, and knuts they had pooled together from two pouches.

" _Oh!"_ Hermione went to them as Severus followed her like he had since they had left the Burrow. Harry's eyes followed them all the way around.

"Prime seats," said the ministry witch at the entrance to the seat booths to Arthur, "Top box! Straight upstairs Arthur, and as high as you can go."

The stairs into the stadium were carpeted in a rich purple tone Hermione liked, admiring the color as they slowly filtered through the doors into the stadium with Severus and her being in front of the other Weasleys as Arthur led them in. The Weasley children had each kept their distance from the Potions Master, after all having given her looks as if she was going mad with the exception of Bill, Charlie, and Percy. She had just smiled at them. At last, they reached the top of the tall staircase, finding themselves in a small box seat at the highest point of the stadium that situated them right between the two gold goalposts. They sat themselves into the rows in front, shuffling past a tiny huddled figure that had it's head in it's hands. Hermione looked down to a scene which she had never imagined.

The blood rushing to her head, her heart beat faster within the confines of her chest, "Oh, Merlin." She grabbed ahold of the rail and stopped walking for a moment as Severus' hands found her waist, guiding her down into her seat next to Harry as he sat on her other side next to Mr. Weasley. "Why did we agree to this?"

_It's just so high…_

Hermione's body suddenly got hot and flushed as she thought about how many stories it would take to fall down before she stopped screaming, Severus talked in her ear as she took off her gloves. "You won't fall over girl, I'll be right here. Plus, they have protective charms around the stands so the blugers can't get in."

She grinned up at him, "I can still see down." She felt a hand grab her own from her left side.

"Alright 'Mione?" Harry asked, having remembered the day that she almost broke down in first year over hovering simply a foot off the ground.

She turned to him after squeezing his fingers and hearing the drums begin to beat and thump, the little house elf behind them having begun trembling as well, "I'm fine."

She didn't see Severus looking at their twined fingers intently. "Are you alright?" she asked the elf.

The tiny thing looked up to Hermione through it's fingers, who she saw was a girl house elf with long eyelashes framing her rounded face. Seeing the witch was talking to her, she placed her fingers' down to her lap before blinking tearily as she twined them around themselves nervously. "Is yous' talking to me Miss?"

Hermione smiled at her kindly, "Yes. What's your name?"

"Winky Miss." She seemed confused as to why she was talking to her, tears escaping her big brown eyes.

Hermione turned to Severus, asking if he had a handkerchief, and turned back to Winky with a kind smile, holding it out to her to take, "My name's Hermione, Winky." She shook the white square slightly for her to take it, "Are you afraid of how high we are up too?"

Winky wiped her cheeks, her trembling subsiding slightly as Hermione distracted her. "Yes, Miss. Hermy."

Hermione giggled slightly at the nickname, "It's alright, I know how you feel. There are charms around us to keep you from falling over the edge."

Hermione turned back to the game as the Minister for Magic entered the box and began introducing Harry to the Bulgarian Minister; Ludo Bagman and the Malfoy family entering behind them to take their seats on the other side of Severus. Ludo whipped out his wand, directed it out his throat and said "Sonorus!" and then spoke over the roar of the sound that was now filling the packed stadium. His voice echoed over them, booming over into every corner of the stadium with magically enhanced vocal cords: " _Ladies and gentlemen… welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!"_

And let the games begin…

Hermione flinched slightly as everyone screamed and clapped around her, thousands of flags waving in the air as their screams turned to discordant national anthems.

..

Hermione shook her head as the boys stopped in their tracks to watch a group of veelas float past the tent, chuckling and rolling her eyes as dejected looks fell onto their faces when they went by without a glance towards them. Veelas were incredibly beautiful with their moon- bright shining skin and pin straight white- gold hair that found some way to float behind them without any wind to keep it up. Hermione was envious of them, and although her face didn't show it, the man coming up behind her saw the slump of her shoulders and her head tilted towards the disappearing girls.

_She was doing it again…_

Reaching her, he grabbed her hand after checking that it was covered by their robes, making her turn up to him with a quickly appearing smile that shadowed the frown she had before.

"Where is everyone?" He asked her, pulling her into the tent and to the back where a secluded cot no one had claimed sat.

"They're going around, talking, making friends." Hermione told him, sitting beside him and picked up his hand to play with his fingers.

They were quiet for a few moments, content with each other's silence until Severus broke it, "You need to stop thinking like that."

She kept her eyes down though they burned to look up at his face, "Thinking like what?" She knew exactly what he was talking about.

He gave her head of curls a look, placing a hand under her chin and bringing her eyes to his, "Like you're not enough."

Her lips turned up at the corners that spoke nothing of happiness, but gave her a melancholy air to go along with her thoughts. "Do you think I'm pretty, Severus?" She asked in sudden curiosity that was not so spur of the moment, her heart beating wildly in her chest in anticipation of his answer.

He stared down at the girl that had blossomed into just shy of a woman in front of his eyes, and not so short a time noticing how the light hit her eyes in just the right way to make them sparkle. "I think you're beautiful, my girl."

"Am I your girl, Severus?"

He kissed her forehead, "You will always be my girl, Hermione. No matter what." He said, remembering how a green eyed boy's hand had gripped hers in comfort, something he was not at liberty to do within the public sphere.

Her smile turned genuine, and she fell asleep on his shoulder with his arm wrapped around her's, the faint jolly music muffled by the tent floating round them. She dreamed of dark eyes, smiling mouths, and crinkled eyes.

When she awoke with a hand shaking her shoulders, she could hear the music outside had turned to screams and multiple feet pounding their feet furiously and frantic outside the tent.

Severus hovered over her bed which he must have placed her in, "They're here," explosions sounded somewhere close by, "We have to leave."

By the light of a few fires that were still burning, Hermione could see people running in all directions from dark robed and bone masked people marching in groups across the campground. Noise like gunfire, loud jeers and roars of laughter followed the group as they added even more levitating bodies to the ones floating above their heads.

"Is Lucius with them?" Hermione asked Severus as they stepped back into the tent to make way for a hastily passing mother, father, and wailing little boy in various states of dress, those of whom they had watched play with his father's wand earlier that day and give his mother grief when she busted the enlarging slug he had been poking at.

"Yes," he replied, wrapping her shivering form in his large robes as they had to hurry and meet the others and didn't have time to change out of her cotton camisole and shorts. "Draco and Narcissa apparated home right after the game ended."

"Where are we going? Where are the others?" Hermione asked, being pulled this way and that behind Severus as she hastily altered his robes to keep from tripping over them.

"I saw Potter and the others go into the woods, Potter and Weasley tried to come back and get you but Arthur told them I would get you out while him, Percy, Bill, and Charlie went to help with the Ministry officials and Aurors."

Hermione's adrenaline was pumping throughout her body, and she could feel every pulse point beating in her wrists, and ankles as well as Severus' through the hand she held.

_I really wish they wouldn't have put an Apparition block on the campsite… people are going to get killed in all this ruckus… But that was the point._

Hermione remembered when the Dark Lord made the decision early on in the summer, to which she still continued to disagree with and curse as they were caught further up in the mess of the night...

_Tom places his wand to his own Dark Mark that marred his right arm, then to Lucius' left, linking him and his Death Eaters once again and summoning them to his side once more. She saw Severus' fingers twitch and she knew his own burned like fire underneath his skin, the grey tattoo spreading with black like their friend's was doing before her eyes._

_In the next moment, the long dark table they sat at the head of was filled with the Dark Lord's bowing subjects. Hermione knew Lord Voldemort had many followers, but there were only a few select handful that could claim a seat at the table, and have earned a Dark Mark. Only those of the most loyal of followers could claim that privilege, and Hermione knew she was the only one to have that claim with no Dark Mark due to her current position in Hogwarts. It would do no good for the best friend of the Boy- Who- Lived to be caught flaunting the sigil of their enemy. There were empty spots between some of the men that Hermione knew people in Azkaban owned, but she wasn't surprised at the few who came to their Masters' call. Many she knew were fathers and uncles to children currently in Hogwarts, but there were few who did not look familiar but Severus had told her of their names._

" _My friends," Tom spread his arms as if to embrace the Death Eaters as they came up to his seated form, going to their knees in front of him and clutching at his robes with softly spoken 'My Lord's,' lamentations of how lost they were without his direction, and carefully blank and devoted faces. Although Hermione could tell some were shiftier than others and sneered slightly at a repulsive man who sat towards the back of the room as he came to pay his respects and repeatedly licked his lips in that small amount of time._

_Several of the men had curiously glanced towards the very small figure that stood to the side of Severus who was situated to the right of the man whose hands they kissed, but dared not say a word about the cowled person who was very obviously a woman as she only came up to the Potion Master's bicep. They were not surreptitious enough for Tom's pleasure though as he chuckled, holding out a hand toward Hermione._

" _Come, my dear," her small pale hand extended out of the mock Death Eater robes, placing it in his cold bony one that had only gotten even more so in the weeks since his resurrection._

_Her identity would not be uncovered until their whole 'family' was together and united, for her safety and those of whom would be sent out on attacks. The underlying meaning of it all being that he didn't want them facing her in the future and hesitate in fear of their Dark Lord's wrath and give away her valuable position._

_All were dismissed, with the exception of the shifty man in the overly large coat whom Hermione already disliked._

" _You will infiltrate Hogwarts as Alastor Moody, Barty," The Dark Lord told the lowly ranked Death Eater, "Severus has been told he has been requisitioned as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher in the upcoming school year, and you will impersonate him. Severus is trusted by Dumbledore with many things, but he and Moody are old friends and will be privy to different things than he. Can I trust you with this task, Barty?"_

_The man threw himself to Voldemort's feet in intimidation of a sycophant, "I live to serve you, my lord. I will not fail."_

_Tom gave a large sigh as he sat back into his armchair in the library with Hermione and Severus, having given Lucius and Narcissa leave to go to Draco after Barty had departed._

" _Get this makeup off my face," Hermione stepped up and conjured a soft damp washcloth, kneeling in front of him and proceeded to wipe the thin layer of foundation a house- elf had smeared on his face before the meeting had started. It had only been but a few months since his relocation into the new body Lucius and Narcissa had found for him, but he was already showing signs of the dead vessel rejecting his soul. It would have been more ideal to have him in another healthy living body, but he had rejected living like a parasite once again like in Quirrell, wanting to be able to control the body he was in._

_Tom Riddle looked to the girl kneeling in front of her with his red eyes, seemingly to look into her soul as Hermione finished with smearing the stain off his lips. She was a very young girl he observed, with her smooth skin framed by little caramel colored ringlets, small pink lips that opened slightly when she breathed, and glittering hazel eyes that held much more knowledge than she shared with him he knew. But she was the one to free him, and he would be eternally grateful. His eyes flicked over to a stoic Severus who stood behind her as always, and his lips curled up slightly but not noticeably. She shared everything with his emotionally closed Potion's Master though. There was something about her that was absolutely charismatic to the man who knew what to look for, and she used it. Evidence of that was him sitting there before her._

_The first time she presumed to be the one to hold his life in her little hands, he almost wished to close those beautiful hazel eyes forever. Until, she showed her superb intelligence, and utter devotion to her protector behind her. She captured the attention of one of the most powerful men in the world by way of her mind, loyalty, and now, her budding beauty._

_Severus notices how his master runs a finger over one of his girl's loose curls by her cheek, and his hands curled into each other behind his back._

" _It is time to show the wizarding world my influence is not gone with my 'supposed' death." Tom said as Nagini slid into the room and around the girl, the girl who did not once flinch as she slid her scaled body slid across her sandaled feet and dainty black nailed toes in hello. Her second toe was ringed in a simple silver ring._

_As Severus and her exit the Malfoy's gate to apparate, he had turned to her, "You will learn occlumency."_

_She had nodded her head, then threaded her arm through his as she knew it was necessary, and she had never turned down an opportunity to learn._

"Hermione!" a girl called out to her as she and Severus entered where he had seen the Weasleys' and Harry disappear into the woods. Ginny barreled into Hermione to latch onto her waist in a death grip, and when she looked up Hermione saw the girl who was almost as tall as her now had tears running down her cheeks.

"It's alright, Gin," Hermione said into the girl's hair, squeezing her back tightly. Fred, George, Harry, and Ron had all had pale faces as they came up to them, and Hermione hugged them all as well. All the while with Ginny still clinging to her like tape and drawing comfort from the only other girl in their little group.

"What do we do now?" Ron asked as they all asked if Hermione was okay, he glanced up to Severus, not quite asking him, but still directing it to his back. The dark man stood watching the burning grounds that were gradually calming as the Death Eaters seemed to be winding down and apparating out as the Ministry officials started going after them.

It was Hermione who answered him though as she met dark eyes over a shoulder, "We wait." She settled down on a fallen log with Ginny, the adrenaline coursing through her body leaving her system slowly, making her feel jittery and sleepy all at once. It didn't take long for the camp to become eerily silent, with burning embers crackling in the husks of the leftover tents that sent sparks into the air. The chanting that had surrounded them slowing until that was all that was left.

Harry had sat on Hermione's other side as Ginny still had her arms around the other girl's waist, eyeing the high necked black robes that seemed to be too large for her that she had covered her shorts and camisole with. She was looking towards Snape as he glanced down to where Ginny fisted her hands in the dress, his eyes moving across the peaked tips of her breasts that she had apparently grown over the summer months and turned his head away as he felt his cheeks burn in the cold night air.

"Alright, Harry?" Hermione asked softly, grabbing his hand and smiling slightly when he jumped.

He squeezed her's back, letting his sudden lustful thoughts flow out of his head, putting it all to the fact that his best friend was becoming a pretty girl and he just happened to notice. "Fine, you?"

She nodded, and looked back to where Severus had leaned against a tree and Ron was staring at her, Harry, and Ginny with a slight frown between his eyes. Just as Hermione parted her lips to tell him and the twins to come over, Severus told everyone to quiet their whispers.

A man was staggering to the middle of the clearing with uneven steps and took out his wand as he turned to where Hermione could see his face…

_Barty…_

"Who is that?" Ron's voice was too loud in the clearing and Hermione came up behind him and his brothers, handing Ginny off to Fred and George who wrapped their arms around their little sister to bury her scared face in George's chest.

"Hush, Ron," Hermione said before going up behind Severus who didn't even have goosebumps from the cold in his thin white button up he had worn beneath the frock coat she now wore.

"What is he doing?" She asked, knowing the Dark Lord hadn't assigned him any part in the raid except destruction.

"I don't know," but they found out in the next moment as he cast a spell into the air that conjured a massive skull of glittering emerald stars with a snake tongue protruding out of his mouth. In and out, in and out, curling slightly at the end before retreating once more.

Hermione got a pang in her gut as she saw the Dark Mark lifted in the air, her body filling with a kind of fear that made her heart race for another reason entirely.

Barty's head lifted to the woods they hid in as screams erupted around them and echoed through the air, making it seem as if hundreds of hundreds of people were hidden in an echoey castle. His beady eyes roamed over the leaves and trees, seemingly stopping where Hermione and the others hid and smiled ferally. Severus reacted as soon as he knew she had been seen, swiping her in front of him as he turned his back on the other Death Eater and hissed at the others to run towards the other side of the clearing and out into the apparating grounds. They had not gotten two feet from the edge of the forest before twenty wizards surrounded them with wands up and ready to fire, but a few got a little trigger happy and fired _stupefy_ at the group before registering it as children and a professor. Hermione and Severus were the only ones still standing as the others had ducked as soon as they saw the Ministry Witches and Wizards, and Severus reacted by instinct and encircled Hermione in his arms immediately, wordlessly casting a _protego_.

"Stop!" A man yelled out from behind the Ministry group, "Stop! Those are my kids!"

Hermione briefly put her head to Severus' chest before he let her go and turned to stand to her side instead of shielding her from the idiotic Ministry workers.

"Are you alright, Hermione, Severus?" Arthur asked after he had checked his children; Bill, Charlie, and Percy coming up from behind him.

Severus nodded, looking curtly at the people who had fired at them with his arms crossed. Hermione answered for them, "We're fine, Arthur."

Mr. Diggory was walking back to where they all stood with a limp form in his arms as Barty Crouch Sr. accused them of ridiculous things.

"Winky!" Hermione gasped, bending down to her as Cedric's father placed her down to the ground. Her head was bleeding, and she seemed to be stunned.

She stirred feebly as they rennervated her, her great brown eyes opening as she blinked several times in a bemused and dazed sort of way. Watched silently by the wizards around her, Hermione took a step forward to help her staggering form up. When Hermione touched her elbow she jerked violently, whipping her head up to the not much taller girl. Sighing, she blinked up at Hermione for a moment before sliding her eyes up to the sign above their head and wailed so suddenly and hid her eyes in her hands that Hermione jerked herself, startled by the sound.

Severus put his hand on her shoulder to pull her back a bit, more backing her up with his bigger stature though as he stepped forward when Mr. Diggory started barking at the small elf. Winky began rocking back and forth, her breath coming in sharp bursts as tears ran through her fingers while Barty Crouch Sr. freed her from his service. Hermione could feel a pit of warm anger pooling in the middle of her chest and down to her stomach as he finally asked her what she was going with a wand, pulling it out of his pocket and holding it up to the light of the Ministry Wizard's wands.

"Are you stupid?" She finally asked, silencing the arguing people around her with her question. Arthur and her friends looking to her with surprise plastered over their faces, knowing Hermione to never disrespect an adult in fear of their disapproval. But that was the Hermione she put up for the world to see, the Hermione she was now was the one Severus spent his time with who was not in the least surprised at her words as he had been thinking the same thing.

_I might have influenced her… just a bit… where words are concerned for that matter…_

"E-excuse me, Miss. Granger?" Mr. Diggory spluttered, turning to her with wide eyes. "I am- "

"A very ill- mannered and rude man," she finished for him with furrowed brows, her words making Winky whimper and look through her bony fingers up at her, still wailing. "If you had any common sense your 'member for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures' head, you would realize that a house- elf would never willingly pick up a witch or wizard's wand even if they gave it to them. Now..." Hermione ignored the bewildered and insulted faces around her and bent down to Winky, smiling soothingly at her as she pulled her hands away from covering her face. "Would you like to come home with us Winky? We can find a place for you at Hogwarts with Dobby?"

Winky looked up to the nice curly haired girl who had made her feel better earlier in the top of the big box in the air, launching herself and wrapping her arms around the girl's neck as she stood. She blubbered in Hermione's ear, "T-thank you, M-miss. Hermy!"

Glaring at Cedric's father who stood flustered with Harry's wand still raised in his hand, she deftly plucked it from his loose fingers and pushed it into the bewildered and bespectacled boy's chest, "Don't lose it again, Harry. It is not a toy." He nodded dumbly at her. She turned to the Mr. Crouch who was leading the Ministry group who had his mouth open to no doubt tell her she couldn't take his former elf, but no one tells Hermione Granger not to do something and got away with it. Except Severus whose hand she now grabbed after telling the group, "If you have need of Winky, we will be at Mr. Weasley's home until we depart for Hogwarts." She nodded curtly at them, turning to the aforementioned man, smiling brightly after her little put-down of the adults around her, "We will see you at home Arthur."

And they spun in a half circle, and disappeared with an almost silent crack; leaving behind baffled adults, perplexed friends, and the two chuckling twins who were exchanging galleons.


	14. 4th Year Part Two

" _Sometimes the strongest women are the ones who love beyond all faults, cry behind closed doors, and fight battles nobody knows about."_

~.O.~

"You can't just take persons of interest away from a crime scene, Hermione!" Percy's ears were a dark red just like Ron's got when he was mad or embarrassed Hermione noted offhandedly, just as she slammed down a bowl of snap peas onto the table.

"She is not a person of interest! And she can hear you so keep your voice down!" Hermione was at her wits end with the third eldest Weasley boy and his insistent badgering of her as she tried to help Mrs. Weasley put dinner on the table. Since they had gotten back from the World Cup it was as if Percy was her shadow wherever she walked, and at the moment she tripped over him as she went and sat between Ron and Severus who Molly had wrangled into staying for dinner. Hermione gave the redhead a dark scowl so much like the dark man's next to her Harry and Ron shivered, knowing they never wanted that one directed towards them from their best friend and began stuffing their faces.

"Hermione is right, Percy," Molly agreed with her sitting next to Arthur at the long table as everyone had their own conversations placing food onto their own plates, everyone except Severus. Percy just frowned darkly as some of the boys laughed at him, knowing that the Weasley family matriarch had the last say and that would be the end of it.

"Blimey, Hermione," Charlie said to her, "You're like a mother dragon with her whelps; breathing fire until you get your point across."

Hermione smiled at the charming dragon tamer with all his big muscles and burns, "Thank you, Charlie." She said, suddenly chipper as she picked one of the bloodiest steaks she could find, placing it onto the plate she was holding and sat it in front of the man sitting to her left.

Molly saw this and frowned, knowing Severus didn't take food from anyone, "Oh, Hermione-" her voice was drowned out in the din of voices as her eyebrows raised in surprised shock as Severus took the knife and fork Hermione gave him, cutting the steak that had more blood in it than smoke.

_That is very… unusual…_

For the very longest time, as long as she had known Severus, he had not once, ever, taken food from someone if he had not watched them cook it, and Molly speculated that his time as a spy had took it's toll and made him very paranoid. The first time she had tried to give him food for some reason or another, he had taken the plate, and later she had seen it untouched in front of him. Since then, he had taken to watching and helping Molly in the kitchen when he stayed over for dinner as he was too thin in her eyes, taking it upon herself to feed him. It had stricken her as odd that he had not tonight, but hadn't noticed at the time she was cooking as Hermione had taken his place as helper.

Molly's voice got lost in the business of the multiple conversations going on around her, but her eyes were trained on the Professor and her son's friend as they seemed to be holding a conversation of their own through the ruckus of her family. Severus' face seemed to be less severe than usual as Hermione actually smiled up at the dour man once in a while, the sharp lines of his face loosening it's blank expression into something she wasn't accustomed to seeing on the younger man as he looked down to his tiny student. Even when Hermione turned towards Harry and Ron, Severus' face was turned towards her slightly as he ate his steak, and the curly haired girl's mimicked him unconsciously.

"Alright, dear?" Her husband asked her, settling a hand over her's and smiling.

She smiled back up at him confusedly, not answering his question.

_They seem awfully familiar with one another..._

~.O.~

"Severus!" Hermione yelled to him as she went to her knees, "Where's my- " She looked up from under the bed to see a pale hand holding a red jumper in front of her face. She smiled gratefully, taking it and his hand to pull herself up off the floor. Standing on her tiptoes she kissed his cheek, "Thanks."

Pulling it over her head she slid her feet into leather sandals as Crookshanks rubbed against her legs, "That is the brightest piece of clothing in this house, girl. How do you manage to always lose it?"

She raised an eyebrow at him over her shoulder as they descended the steps, "How does Crooks' bell- toy always seem to find it's way onto the top of the kitchen cabinets when they're too high for him to jump up on?" Crookshanks meows in her arms as if in assent over his mistress' shoulder, looking at Severus with his slitted yellow eyes, his tail twitched from where it draped over Hermione's arm.

She could hear the smirk in his voice as he answered, "I have no idea. He is a Kneazle, maybe he willed it up there."

"Is Barty going to be at the Opening Feast?" She asked him, not exactly enthused with the Dark Lord's idea of putting Barty in Hogwarts, the repulsive man was likely to be even more creepy when she knew he was posing in someone else's body.

"Yes."

_Dumbledore continues to amaze me in his choice of peoples to look after and teach children…_

From what she had heard, Hermione was certain that the real Auror was even more unfit to teaching children than Severus was. She had no idea how Severus had caught the legendary man unawares, but let's just say, on the scale of people who could surprise her with their hidden skills, Severus was very low as in her eyes, he was just as powerful as either of his two masters.

..

"Ron," Hermione scolded the boy as she walked into their compartment to see the boy's ugly robes Mrs. Weasley had bought for him off the birdcage that sat in the corner. "There you go lovie," she pulled the fabric off to expose the energetic little Pigwidgeon as he happily chewed on the large treat she had given him, knowing it would keep the baseball sized owl busy for a few hours.

Ron scowled at the cloth in her hands as she sat down, "I don't know why Mum bought those anyway, she won't tell us what they're for."

Hermione smirked, _I know_ , she sang in her head as she examined the red laced robes. "Do you want me to fix them up for you? Make them better? This color will clash horribly with your hair."

Ron looked incredulous, "You can do that?"

Harry gave his friend a look as if saying, _Hermione can do anything._

"Yeah, I've been practicing a few tailoring charms. You want to keep the lace?" She grinned mischievously as he scowled once again, holding up a little piece as Harry laughed at his friend's antics. An hour later Hermione handed Ron dark purple robes that bordered on black, and a solid black vest.

"You're an angel, 'Mione." Ron said as he took them, giving her a tight hug that lifted her from her feet squealing at the suddenness of it, not being used to Ron so touchy. "I still want to know what they're for though."

Hermione's cheeks flushed at the praise, "We'll just have to see."

Hermione sat reading the rest of the way and listening to her boys talk about Quidditch, occasionally looking up to them and admiring their faces. They had grown up so much since she had first met them. They had both grown to be at least half a foot taller than her or more, Ron having rebelled against his mother and followed Charlie's example to let his hair grow out longer as his frame grew lean and lanky, just as Harry's did the same but had started putting on some muscle due to his position as Seeker in Quidditch. Ron cheeks had also somehow seemed to become even more freckled than it already was as well.

Hermione watched them as Crookshanks crawled on his belly up from her legs to her chest, her heart hurting at the thought of what was coming and knowing that she would do anything for them. But she knew deep down in a place she had yet to acknowledge fully, that Severus was the main reason for everything she did now in the moments she roped the Dark Lord into her.

Her life revolved around her tall, dark, handsome man, and his revolved around hers ever since they had seen each other for the very first time in her parent's living room and she switched their teacups on a complete hunch.

~.O.~

As she laid in bed staring up at the canopy of her bed, Hermione had so many thoughts in her head, all she could do was stare into the darkness and map out the folds in her curtains.

She made a list in her mind.

_The Dark Lord had been resurrected, by her own singular actions and plannings, and nobody knows that he is alive once again. Directing his Death Eaters to which I am a part of._

_She was subtly maneuvering that part of him that was still human and not a megalomaniac sociopath who wanted to rule the world, but was a living human man with red blood within his veins. She is making him care for her, and trying in the process, to see if there is anything worth saving, hoping like hell that her actions will be fruitful and that he will honor his promises to her. For all the good it will do if he decides to turn on her just as he did all those years ago with Lily, to whom Severus had garnered a bargain from his master to protect the one that he loved and was betrayed as well._

_She had suggested that since Barty Jr. be another spy in the presence of Dumbledore, after all, he needed so many spies in Dumbledore's network as possible. While he might not be the most personable person within the Death Eaters, he must have been sane enough after escaping Azkaban years after his incarceration and no one know of the fact._

_Her and Severus were stuck in a circle that will keep going round until their master is done with his crusade of capturing back his health… as well as her best friend. Or, he is once more killed and truly dead, his ashes feeding the earth. And it is her fault because she helped bring back the most dangerous wizard the wizarding world has known since Grindelwald. But, oh was it such a thing to be able to pick his brain and all the knowledge that it held, him looking to her with a glittering eye as she imitated how he had felt towards acquiring all the knowledge that he could when he was her age. Although Severus' mind was great to look into as well, the Dark Lord had after all lived decades more._

_And last but not least…_

_Hermione is too bloody smart that it blinds her to the fact that she doesn't have to solve everyone's problems, but she has to solve Severus' because she is realizing that maybe, just maybe, she doesn't have just a schoolgirl crush on him, but she can't do anything about it since he has known her since she was a little girl and he could never see her in that way._

_Life and death, love or affection… it was all so complicated._

~.O.~

The boys were going to be a handful without Quidditch, Hermione suddenly remembered thinking at the feast. Her mind turning itself over to her two best friends not wanting to think about what this year would entail for them at all.

Hermione had looked to her messy haired best friend as he talked to Ron, who had turned his green eyes to her as he caught her looking and gave her a smile. She felt the corners of her lips turn up, but it felt foreign to her now to smile at Harry as if nothing was wrong. But everything would be okay. It would. Hermione had glanced up to the High Table, stopping on Severus for a moment before resting on their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher who had stopped eating in favor of drinking from his hip flask. She flicked them back to the man who was now staring at her, and her mouth turned up once again. The corners speaking of the truth this time around.

Everything would be okay. Severus would make sure she was safe. She would make sure Harry was safe. Her eyes closed as weariness set in concerning all the wheels turning to which most she had a hand in.

" _Come to me, Hermione." Tom gestured to the side of him._

" _Yes, my Lord?" She sat on the edge of the light sofa, her knees turned towards him with her hands sat primly in her lap._

_He stroked her cheek, his hand shaking slightly as it was in those first months that his muscles began failing him, "Will you play something for me?"_

_She smiled at him, staying very still until his hand dropped. She got up, her robes whispering along the floor around her cold bare feet. She sat at the black wooden bench behind the baby grand piano, placing her hands upon the appropriate keys and filling the study with beautiful music that would lull him to sleep. And it was that such trust, that he would allow her to be within his wards while he was vulnerable that showed he believed in her absolute devotion to him._

" _Lovely," Tom whispered, closing his eyes to the tune._

_Hermione's eyes met Severus' in the dark corner in which he stood._

~.O.~

Mad- Eye Moody entered the room, magical roaming eye, missing nose, wooden leg and all. His rough years in the Auror profession had made him substantially more grizzled and frightening than Hermione had seen, including Fenrir Greyback who was halfway to a full werewolf. It gave her an odd feeling to know that it was really someone else in his body, and it made her wonder if it was just because she knew Barty was posing as him, or if she was feeling for the real Moody, she knew wherever he was as it couldn't be pleasant.

Harry and Ron grinned stupidly at their new fierce looking teacher as he started barking about curses, Hermione rolling her eyes at them when he brought out a glass jar from inside a drawer in his desk. Inside were three large, black spiders scuttling around the small container. Ron recoiled from where he sat in front of Hermione next to Harry from his arachnophobia. Moody reached inside the jar, caught one of the spiders, and held it in his palm for everyone to see the white spots on it's back.

He then pointed his wand at it, and said, " _Imperio!_ " in a gruff growl.

The spider left his hand on a fine thread of silk, and began to swing back and forth as though on a trapeze. It stretched it's legs rigidly, did a backflip, and broke it's silken chain to land on a desk and proceed to do a few cartwheels. Their professor lifted his wand, and the small arachnid rose to it's hind legs to entertain them with a little tap dance, prompting the class to break out into giggles and laughs.

But Hermione remained silent as Moody's eye scanned over them, lingering on her for a few seconds, and then back to the helpless animal. She knew what would eventually come, and she didn't like it done to an animal any more than a person.

Moody barked at the children around Hermione, admonishing them for being amused at the spider's dance before asking them for another Unforgivable. Several people put their hands into the air, including Neville to Hermione's surprise as he never raised his hand in class except in Herbology, but she kept her's laid loosely on the wood of their shared desk.

"Mr. Longbottom," Moody called on her friend, looking to the register for his name.

"There's one- the Cruciatus Curse," the round- faced boy had a queer undertone to his voice as he gave his answer. Hermione further tickled as she saw her friend's hands clench until they turned white as the spider's legs bent into it's body, and started to twitch horribly as it rocked from side to side. Neville's eyes were also open so wide it was a wonder he didn't have blood vessels popping from them.

"Neville," Hermione whispered, resting her hand on his arm, making him tense even further. She tried to sooth him in vain, but he continued to stare as Moody continued to torture the little spider. No one was laughing now. " _Stop!"_

Hermione saw everyone look to where she sat, not used to their resident bookworm talking to a teacher in such a way. Much like during the Quidditch cup as she took up for Winky. Moody said nothing until he asked for the third Curse as Hermione slid her hand into Neville's, who then grabbed a hold of it as if it was a lifeline for the rest of the class. She saw Harry glance back at them worriedly a few times, meeting Hermione's eyes once and she smiled the smile he knew was her _don't worry I'll take care of it_ smile.

When Moody released the class, Hermione coaxed a still shaking and dazed Neville up as the other's filed in front of them and out the door, Harry and Ron hovering there waiting.

"Alright, Mr. Longbottom, Ms. Granger?" Moody stood in front of them, one eye focused on Hermione, the other on Neville who flinched when he saw their professor standing before them as if he was Professor Snape. His grip tightened on Hermione momentarily.

"Alright, sir." He said in a horrible attempt to sound cheery, he let go of Hermione and almost fell in his haste to pick up his bag up off the ground before practically running past the boys.

Hermione picked up her own bag as Moody watched her, "Have a good day, Professor." He said nothing as his eyes followed her in a rare moment of stillness from his magical one.

She smiled at the boys as they walked down the stairs, and seeing Neville looking out a window ahead she turned to them and allowed them to pass in front of her, "I'll meet you guys later, I'm going to talk to Neville."

"'Right," Ron said, continuing down as his mind is only on the food awaiting him in the Great Hall, but Harry hesitated as he saw the look on their friend's face.

"I can handle it Harry," she said, hugging him as his arm goes around her waist briefly. "Are you going to be alright?"

"I'll be fine," he told her, faking a smile that she saw right through as he marveled at how he never noticed how tiny she was.

Hermione walked Neville to the greenhouses, helping him tend to the various plants until he decided to talk. It took awhile, but he eventually did. "Do you know why my Gran raises me?" His voice was small as he looked down, pulling the petals off of a rose. "Why my parents don't?"

"No." She kept her voice soft.

He sniffed, trying to hide his watery eyes from her. "Bellatrix Lestrange used the Cruciatus on them. Now they live in St. Mungos."

Hermione said nothing as she saw a tear run down his cheek, blinking to get rid of her own. They stayed in the greenhouses for a while longer until it got to be dusk, and decided it was time to head back. Thoughts swirling around Hermione's head as she told Neville she wouldn't tell anyone his secret, knowing some people needed their own secrets that would stay that way.

_I have my own secret or two, ones people would think me crazy for having..._

Hermione sighed as she plops down onto the crimson sofa beside Harry, asking him where Ron went off to.

"He gave up on our Divination homework," he said, waving vaguely toward the coffee table in front of their knees where his and Ron's papers were strewn over. "How is Neville?"

Hermione slid her arm through his, kicking off her shoes before bringing them up to rest beside her as she answered, "He's feeling better. Just a little shaken up." Resting her head on his shoulder she stared into the fire, and after a few quiet minutes she asked him the question she knew she would have to ask since she learned they were going to be shown the Unforgivables.

_Seems like I'm going to be Mother Hermione today, looking after my boys._

"Are you really okay?" She asked tentatively. She felt his jaw tense from where it rested on top of her head.

"It's like a series of pictures and sounds that flash through my mind sometimes, not like when the dementors fed off of me though." He begins, speaking of the day that his parents died, "When they did that, I was living it all over again. It's just like looking at a camera's picture roll, it's all detached when I'm seeing my mom die, over, and over again in my dreams. And I can't do anything about it." His voice steadily got softer until it was just a whisper as Hermione lifted her head to look at his profile, grabbing his hand so that he could squeeze onto it much like Neville had done. "Do you know what the worst part of it all is?" He looked down at her with sad green eyes, "I can only love the idea of them being my parents, I don't have any memories of them to know what it felt like even having them as my parents. Only one memory makes up what my mother did for me."

Hermione's heart was breaking for her best friend, even more so than it did for Neville as she was much more caught up in his life than the other boy's. She wasn't surprised he wasn't the one breaking down since everything he had said, it made complete sense after all. You can't love someone, truly love them, if you have no memories of them except the one of them leaving you. She untangled her arm from his only to somehow end up sitting between his legs as she threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his messy hair, trying not to cry.

"Does that make me a bad person?" he asked, his arms tight around her torso showing maybe he wasn't as put together as she thought.

_Now didn't that sound familiar..._

Hermione pulled back chuckling waterlily, putting her forehead to his and she closed her eyes. "There are so many bad people in the world, Harry, and you certainly aren't one of them."

From what Harry could see of the girl in his arms, the firelight flickered over their close faces and the tears clinging to her eyelashes. And in that moment, he acted impulsively, not out of the type of attraction one would normally feel in this situation, but out of the need to feel something other than sadness or pain for once.

Hermione felt a soft, hesitant brush of lips across her own, asking for permission. She tilted her head up and pressed them together more firmly in a proper, closed mouthed kiss. She understood what he was doing, and she needed it from someone too, someone she could actually kiss without it feeling as if they were doing something wrong if others were to find out. It wasn't a passionate thing between them, but a comforting act that showed that they could help one another through everything they knew would come.

They pulled back from one another panting softly, feeling as if there was a weight lifting from their shoulders. They understood one another perfectly.

Hermione stayed situated in his lap, resting her head back on his shoulder once more, yawning sleepily. "I love you, Harry. I won't leave you."

Harry chuckled lightly, placing a kiss to her hair, "I love you to, 'Mione."

Brother and sister came to an understanding.

~.O.~

_The Dark Arts pertains to a wide range of charms, spells, and most commonly, the three Unforgivables..._

"Blast Ended- Skrewts, Severus," Hermione said deadpanned, holding up a burn on her palm as she looks up from his book that sat in front of her, laying on her stomach in his large bed, "Damn, Blast Ended- Skrewts." She runs a finger over the smooth numb skin.

Going over to his desk he takes an oval tin out then bends in front of her to take her small hand within his long fingers, spreading burn paste over it as he unconsciously strokes her wrist with his other thumb.

_It was amazing how one small touch…_

Hermione could feel her cheeks heat as she adjusts her position on her stomach to cross her feet up in the air behind her.

"Why are you reading these?" He asks as he pulls the book out from under her forearms, a book she shouldn't have gotten to as it was clearly on one of the higher shelves in his office. Marked off limits as they were much more grey, or darker, than the normal spellbooks on the lower ones within her shorter reach.

"Why do people normally read, Sev?" She cocks her eyebrow at him in imitation of his own signature move.

He raises his back to her that severely outdoes her's as he bends down on his heels to rest his face on the edge of the bed in front of her, their noses about an inch apart. "You can't even see the printed words underneath my, _scribble,_ as you put it."

She smiled with all her pointed fangs on display as she giggles, "You only _scribble_ in your research as you have so many thoughts going around in that big brain of yours that you just _have_ to get them out. And I like seeing into your mind, it helps me understand you better." She moved over to make room for him on her other side.

He was quiet for a moment as he got up and lay next to her for a while, playing with her fingers while looking thoughtfully up at the canopy.

"You knew about Neville's parents," She told him, breaking their normal comfortable silence as she traces patterns on his palm.

He looks to her as he breaks through his thoughts, "He told you?"

She nodded, "Barty did the Unforgivables in class, and he didn't respond very well."

"I wouldn't think so. No, I wasn't with them that day."

She said nothing else until she sat up, smiling and asking if she could practice her Legilimency. He stayed perfectly still as she took his face in her tiny hands, whispering " _Legilimens!"_

He could still feel her mind brush up against his own as she shuffles around for a memory she wanted, flashes of his own going in front of his eyes as if from a very fast camera roll. It would take time for her to get as good as him, but she was determined. She always liked the feeling of being in the calm of his memories. Felt how it would be as if she were floating in the sea without getting wet, as if the tranquil place could shift in a moment's notice as a monster lurked beneath.

_He looks down to a little curly haired girl that was more the height of a girl almost half her age than her own. Her little lips turn up into a brilliant smile as she sees his eyes upon her. He feels confused._

_Severus' heart does a thud, thud, thud, thud thud. The sound of his blood rushing to his head as he sees the single girl, person, he has cared for in the world wipe away makeup from the Dark Lord's face. He touches her with a look so close to admiration that his heart slows and feels as if it would stop, knowing she was really and truly attached to his first master no matter what she says. He could always see into her soul, even if she herself were denying herself._

Severus decides it is time to test her defenses, and is met with substantial resistance, but ultimately breaks through.

_She looks to the dark man she had come to love, watching how he cuts his potions ingredients deftly with a small silver dagger. He is always relaxed when he is working, and it makes Hermione smile as he looks up to her from his hands, giving her that smile she loves so much. She's never seen him look at anyone else like that before._

_Hermione's hands card through his beautiful black hair that felt like raw silk sliding through her fingers. The thick black strands the softest thing she had ever touched. She watched them shine with his natural oils as opposed to what other people thought was grease._

"I have to tell you something, Severus," he heard her say out loud, "I don't want you to see it and make the wrong conclusions."

_But as she says this, he glimpses a flash of messy black hair and green eyes staring at her in her mind, their faces very close together._

His eyes lower she sees, but she kisses his nose, bringing his eyes back up to see her sad smile. She felt the brief anger and sadness from him when he had seen Harry's face, and she knew exactly how he felt. She had felt the same when she had seen Lily in one of his memories, as if another person was stealing the other away from each other. As if they were betraying a bonding that they would not even admit to each other out loud.

_Another Potter was stealing his girl, again. His…_

"He's like my brother, Severus," she told him, but she could see him closing himself off from her right before her eyes.

"A brother you kiss?" he said scoffing, sitting up looking as if he was going to storm out, but wanting an explanation that would quell the sudden madness within his very bones.

Hermione felt the swellings of panic beginning in her chest and fought not to start blurting out the first things coming to mind, or start bawling at the thought of him leaving her for good. Jumping hastily off the bed to stand before him where he had put his legs over the side of the bed, she told him to look in her mind in the deep, deep place she had locked the few memories she hadn't intended on showing him just yet. Or ever.

_The nightmares started it all. He told her about Lily, and she couldn't discern the thought of her Severus belonging to someone else. Even if it was only one sided and the girl had never looked at him that way. The next morning, after he had told her this long kept slight and they fell asleep in his bed, she sat on the bathroom floor after casting a Muffliato around the room. The tears fell silently with a heart wrenching sadness that she knew not the meaning of._

_She fell into a sadness the next few days, and thanked the gods it was the days Severus had to go out and tend to the Dark Lord's needs. She couldn't let him see her like this. She didn't know why she was even crying in the first place._

Hermione allowed Severus to break the connection between their two minds, and she didn't know what he was thinking. She didn't touch him. The quiet wore on, and on, and on, until Hermione decided to break it, but Severus' quiet question brought relief to the tense atmosphere.

"It was, just comfort then?" he finally asked, and Hermione's tense body unclenched a bit. He looked exactly how she had felt when she had her little breakdown, and she was glad to see she could actually see that and not the stone mask he reserved for others.

"It was." Her voice was hesitant Severus could hear, and he got a pang in his heart to hear it. She had never, ever, since he had first met her when she was eleven, been hesitant around him. And he hated it.

Reaching out to grab her hands that were twisting around one another, her eyes flitted up from where she watched their movements."You are an amazing girl, Hermione, and I have no idea why you feel the way you do about me. I have done nothing to deserve it."

"You have a very low opinion of yourself, Sev." Her voice was quiet, not knowing where this was going. She ran her thumb over his knuckles.

"You have this uncanny ability to be loyal to about any, and everyone. Even if they have given you no reason to." She smiles less hesitant at him now, so he puts his large palm over her delicate cheek.

_She is a girl who accepts everyone and anyone, and likes to look into murderers minds as if they were books. The dark men allowing it, and giving away their power freely as if it were words._

_It takes a very special witch indeed._

_.._

Hermione and Severus continue on looking into each other's minds for hours upon hours, sifting through thoughts they have had of each other. Thoughts that they had completely avoided previously, before Hermione's memories showed Severus exactly how very much her emotions for him ran into her very bones and into her soul.

_It will have to be this way, girl._

_Things will never be the same though…_ Hermione whispered in her mind as she stroked the man who she loved's cheek, looking deep into his black as sin eyes, feeling a sense of deep melancholy even though his decision was the bet for the both of them. _I will still love you, Severus._

_I love you, my Hermione._


	15. 4th Year Part Three

" _Someone who can stimulate my mind and curiosity by engaging me effortlessly with the collision of our essences and natural chemistry."_

~.O.~

Compared to Hogwarts' own Headmaster, the Head of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang were both much more imposing than Dumbledore's normal appearance. But then again, that's what he likes us to think, overshadowing the man who had defeated Grindelwald. Madame Maxime, the vertical size of Hagrid, was very commanding all on her own as the woman clad in her beautiful black velvet led her small sea of powder blue students up to their castle. Karkaroff though, did not seem to hold the same overwhelming personality as the french woman, but he did seem to have the same cold eyes as the other Death Eaters he had turned his back on. Severus had called him a very unlikable man, and Hermione saw that in his grating fruity voice even as she admired how handsome he was in his black and silver robes to match his salt and pepper goatee and white hair.

If anything, the Quidditch playing Head- Boy that walked beside him was more frightening and manly than his Headmaster. Prominent nose and thick eyebrows aside, he had large muscles to go along with his long legs, and he wasn't bad too bad to look at even if he was a bit shorter than Hermione was used to.

Hermione cocked her head to the side, exasperated with herself.

_I seem to have a thing for older men…_

"For heaven's sake, Ron. He's only a Quidditch player," Hermione snarked to him, already irritated with his fawning over the guy as they walked back up to the castle. She moved past him into the Great Hall where the other schools seemed to have already spread out between the tables, blue sitting more at the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, there were odd ones spreading to Gryffindor and Slytherin who had more red and fur than any other. Hermione sat next to a girl with long silvery blonde hair that fell as long as Hermione's, and when she turned to her with deep blue eyes the color of the sky, she could see the girl was clearly part veela.

"'Ello," the girl said to Hermione who smiled at her.

"Bonjour, my name is Hermione Granger," she told the veela in french, holding her hand out as the boys gaped at her and the girl as they sat on her other side.

"I am Fleur Delacour," she gripped Hermione's hand as her eyes lit up, "It's nice to meet someone who knows french so well here! I was afraid of not making any new friends since my english is not so good."

Hermione smiled as she passed her the bouillabaisse, "My father's mother was french, but I haven't practiced in awhile. I could help you if you want?"

Fleur's laugh resembled the tinkling of bells, "Deal."

"I didn't know you spoke French, 'Mione," Harry told her as him and Ron walked behind her, the students all making their way to the Entrance Hall to make for bed.

"Where is he?" Ron interrupted her answer, looking over Slytherin heads to find the man he had been still going on about.

_Viktor Krum._

Harry apologetically looked at her, knowing she was getting prickly with their other friend and his obsession. Hermione rolled her eyes over her shoulder, not noticing how Harry's eyes widened as she stepped out in front of the Durmstrang Headmaster who then bumped her back into the teacher who had just stepped up to hasten the children forward. The Durmstrang boy beside him had reached out towards her at the same time as well, looking to Hermione who blushed under the scrutiny of his black eyes so alike, but so different from the man's behind her.

Karkaroff turned to her snarling, "Watch it girl!" His face turning just a shade paler as he saw Severus holding Hermione's arm, his eyes lingering over the boy with the scarred forehead beside her for a long moment.

"Igor," Severus drawled, bringing the Headmaster back to look at him. "If you wouldn't mind taking your students to your ship? Hogwarts has a curfew."

Karkaroff nodded to the much more imposing man, having turned even paler at the cold tone of his voice and nodded to the boys behind him to follow. Viktor Krum let go of Hermione's arm, looking back once he had got to the corner of the hallway. She looked up as she felt another gaze on her cheek, feeling a different kind of flush go into her cheeks at this one.

"Go on Miss. Granger, we don't have all night."

Hermione smiled, hesitantly, ducking her head for a second before meeting his eyes once again which flicked to Harry, who then nudged her to get going onto Gryffindor Tower.

"Goodnight, Professor."

Although things between the two of them had been tense for the weeks after they had learned the truth of each other, they still maintained their close relationship that was blessedly free of uncomfortableness or awkwardness. But the atmosphere was thicker than it used to be, and Hermione for a few odd seconds wished she and Harry had not shared that moment between them, then berated herself for thinking that in the first place. If they had not, her and Severus would have lingered in that state of limbo, never knowing if their feelings were reciprocated by the person they loved most in the world. Meanwhile, her and Harry's friendship had changed considerably as well, coming to the understanding they would always be there for each other, and talk of anything without judgment. Although, Hermione couldn't tell him of Severus just yet. It was too big of a thing to bring up at random.

Severus nodded as he swept away, Hermione wishing she could follow him down to his lonely dungeons and clasp her hands around his waist like she used to without these conflicting thoughts swirling in her head.

..

The newly decorated Great Hall rang with laughter as Fred and George both sprouted long thick white beards that hung down to their waists, their's the loudest of all as Lee helped them to their feet, howling as well. Few people had tried to cross the age line and put their name into the illuminated Goblet of Fire, and each walked away the same way no matter if they were pushed into the line by their friends or no. Giggling between the two boys, Hermione waved back to Fleur as she put her own name into the Goblet on a pale blue parchment paper.

"Close your mouth, darling," Hermione tapped Ron's chin lightly as he followed Fleur's steps back to one of the pushed back tables of the room.

"Look at how she walks," he said breathily, his ears turning as red as his hair as she and Harry smirked at him. Hermione shook her head as she tried not to stare as the Durmstrang boys entered their names. All in all, they were all just terribly masculine.

_And the thin film of dark magic that clung to them made them seem that more imposing…_

_And absolutely enticing..._

Hermione didn't think anyone else felt it though, it was probably just her as well as a select others who spent much time around those who had experienced the feeling of another's magic whose been branded by the darker magics. Her magic automatically felt the difference after many years of Severus brushing her magic with his.

The hall buzzed with excitement as they finished their feasting, the plates disappearing into the kitchens as Dumbledore stepped up to stand beside the pedestal the Goblet resided upon.

He took out his wand and gave a great sweeping wave with it. At once, all the candles except those inside Hagrid's large pumpkins floating high above their heads extinguished, plunging the hall into semi- darkness. The Goblet of Fire now shone brighter than anything in the Hall, the sudden bright sparkling blue- white light of the flames burning everyone's eyes and making them water. Hermione felt her heart jump to her throat in sudden anxiety as she saw her classmates, and two best friends start to whisper excitedly across the table from each other as Dumbledore took another step forward. Her eyes found Severus' in the dark, knowing exactly where he would be standing even if he was mostly shrouded in shadow from the rest of the people around him.

_Gods, please let him live through this year… let us all live through this year..._

Hermione felt shaky and nauseous, but Severus' eyes willed her to calm herself, and everything would be fine. She closed her eyes briefly, slowing her breathing to not go into a panic attack when the last name was called.

_Fear cuts deeper than swords… Calm as still water… calm as still water… all will be well..._

Hermione's eyes opened, her shallow breaths slowed as her body got a chill from fingertip to toe, and the first name was called as Dumbledore caught a piece of parchment, "Victor Krum!"

The flames inside the Goblet turned red once again as the second tongue of flame shot another piece of parchment out in sparks, "Fleur Delacour!"

Hermione clapped once again and smiled at Fleur as she practically floated past their table, closing Ron's mouth once again as he began drooling unattractively when the Half- Veela waved to them. The Hogwarts champion was next, and Hermione felt her shoulders tense up once again, not ready to see people's reactions in the next few minutes… "And the Hogwarts Champion, Cedric Diggory!"

Every single Hufflepuff managed to find their way to their feet in the crowded hall and touch some part of the boy as he made his way to the chamber behind the teacher's table where the other Champions had disappeared to. Dumbledore began a grand speech Hermione was sure, but was soon interrupted by a fourth finger of fire reaching out from the Goblet to throw another name into the competition of life, death and skill. Hermione's tears threatened to tear down her meagre Occlumency shield as the name echoed in the silent hall…

" _Harry Potter."_

Every head in the Hall turned to where they sat alongside the other Weasley children who looked as dumbfounded as Harry certainly felt underneath his shocked mask. There was no applause, but a buzzing had filled the silence that had penetrated the walls around them as if bees had filled the rafters.

Hermione flicked her eyes towards Severus once again for a brief moment as Harry said in a faint voice, as if unaware he was speaking at all, "But I didn't put my name in…?" He sounded so much like the eleven year old little boy she had first met years ago.

Dumbledore called once again to Harry as the noise around them grew louder, Professor McGonagall stood beside him where they waited for a shell shocked Harry to come to his senses. Hermione touched his arm for him to look at her without really seeing her, his eyes pleading with her as if a child to his mother to make everything alright again.

"You need to go up, Harry."

Hermione watched as he disappeared behind the door to meet the other Champions with a heavy heart, Severus' flowing robes bringing up the end of the Headmasters' exit into the back lounge.

_Please, please, please… give him the strength to get through this year._

_.._

"Gods, Severus," Hermione paced in front of him, wearing a hole in his fuzzy gray rug as Crookshanks tried to circle them as she walked. Meowing up at his Mistress in concern. "What did we do? What have we done? We put the idea of putting Harry's name in the Goblet to the Dark Lord. I gave him the idea… He can't get through this, he's just a boy, just an innocent boy- " Hermione clutched the hair on the side of her head with both her hands, almost pulling it out as her chest grew tight.

"Hermione," he caught her by her shoulders to stop her increasing worry, "You know good and well we had to. We had to find a way to get him out of the castle, and this was it. This was to further secure our spot in the Dark Lord's circle, and that will further ensure the boy's safety. This is it. You said it yourself."

"I said it myself," Hermione repeated vaguely, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Calm yourself now," He told her, wiping them away, "Everything will be fine as long as we are together, and we stick to the plan. We cannot allow our emotions to get in the way."

"No," she agreed, finally calming down.

"Now, Dumbledore and the other schools should be done with Potter," he hinted at her to go to her friend, knowing she wouldn't calm completely until she talked to her friend. Hermione nodded silently, looking down at the floor and drifting out the door, leaving an orange fluff ball and a dark spy to stare at one another.

Severus sighed as Crooks meowed up at him in question, shaking his tail lazily on the floor behind him as he stared up at the tall man with golden eyes.

"Go look after her, beast."

The cat meowed once more in assent, leaning against black trousers and leaving behind a dusting of orange gold hairs.

..

With every Gryffindor that currently resided in the school crammed into the common room, all the noise and music and bodies made Hermione even more claustrophobic and irritated than usual. Especially with Ron sulking next to her in the corner they were huddled into.

"You saw how Fred and George ended up when they tried to cross the age line, Ron." She told the redhead, feeling the beginnings of a headache come along. The boy just could not get it round his thick head that even if Harry had wanted into the competition, he wouldn't have been able to do it himself. "It just isn't possible for Harry to put his own name in the Goblet. He would have ended up with a beard as long as Dumbledore's!"

He stayed the way he was, his arms crossing his chest as he leaned against the stone wall behind them. He hadn't said a word once she started defending Harry almost half an hour ago when she entered the common room after coming up from Severus' chambers. Hermione huffed as yet another person bumped into her legs, jumping a bit when an abnormally ruffled Crookshanks leapt into her lap with a disgruntled look on his face.

"He here Crooks?" She asked the half- kneazle, knowing he wouldn't have crossed the throng of unobservant teens just to meow at her. Hermione ran her fingers in between his soft downy fur, flattening it where it had ridged against his spine. Ron looked warily at the cat she saw in the corner of her eye, and knew it was because he knew Crookshanks didn't appreciate him very much since he had been particularly uncaring of him in regards to Pettigrew last year.

Yells and cheers answers Hermione's question, and she stood with the Kneazle clutched to her chest to put him on the boy's dormitory steps so he wouldn't get trampled. Waiting a few minutes for everyone to get their questions out of their system even though she knew Harry wouldn't appreciate it, she finally pulled the boy in question away from the multitude of grasping hands to pull him up to the empty dormitory.

"You couldn't have helped a half- hour ago?" Harry asked her, sounding as irritable as she felt as he pulled off a Gryffindor banner Lee Jordan had insisted on draping around his shoulders like a cloak.

Sitting on his bed cross- legged, Hermione waited for Crookshanks to shift onto her lap from where he had been laying on Harry's pillow to answer.

"If they hadn't gotten to you now they would have later on, it was best if they had gotten it out of their systems."

Harry changed out of his school robes into pajama pants, lying down next to her with his head beside Crooks' where it sat heavily on her thigh.

"You don't think I did it do you? Ron does, he wouldn't even talk to me after saying congratulations. Like I want to be going into yet another thing that could get me killed." He said, his voice bitter. Hermione ran a hand through his messy hair, looking disapprovingly at his ribs that jutted sharply out from his torso, evidence of his many years of neglect from the Dursleys.

_Like Sev's must have been…_

"Of course I don't think you did, Harry. If anyone had seen the look on your face when your name was called they wouldn't have thought you had entered your name either. Ron, though, it should be obvious why he's acting this way." Hermione felt a familiar pang in her gut, similar to the one she had just an hour ago.

"Not to me."

"He's jealous." Seeing the incredulous look on his face she smiled faintly, the corners of her mouth barely lifting. "It's always you who gets the attention, Harry. I know it's not your fault," she pulled his hair slightly as he scowled and opened his mouth, "but he's the baby boy of his family and has to compete with his brothers and Ginny at home, and you're already famous. He kind of gets pushed to the side, and never says anything about it. I guess this was just another thing to rankle at him, assuming his best friend entered a life changing competition and didn't even tell him he was going to do it let alone get chosen."

He groaned, "Just what I need, to be another _Chosen One_." They sat in silence for a few moments, Hermione's hand sliding through his hair while he had a staring contest with the slanted eye Kneazle. He spoke up quietly, "I don't want to be a chosen anything anymore. Everyone has all these expectations, and I wasn't even the one to do anything to earn any of it. How am I supposed to even get through this competition? We're in our _fourth year_ , 'Mione. We don't know anything about defense spells with all the psycho professors we've had, or advanced charms."

This time she laughed, "I do."

He smiled cheekily at her, "Of course you do."

Hermione's eyes started to feel heavy after a while longer, and not long after she made up her mind to go to her own room Ron came in without looking at either one of them and closed his own curtains.

She raised an eyebrow, not commenting as Harry said, "I'm not talking to him," and sighed once more before standing and stretching her hands above her head and leaning down to kiss Harry's forehead goodnight.

"I'll help you learn what you need for the trials, Harry," she told him as his green eyes stared up at her, "But you need to owl Sirius and tell him what's happened before he hears it from someone else and starts worrying and does something rash."

He groans, both from exasperation at his best friend, and the weight of a sleepy kneazle seeking warmth against his chest as he knew his Mistress wanted her friend to be taken care of. Green eyes had another stare down, one pair covered in spectacles, the other half covered by slanted lids.

"Why is she so bossy?" He asks the cat, earning a small paw to the nose signaling he would never find the answer.

~.O.~

"You can't let them get to you, Harry," Hermione told the seething boy as he shoved his things into his bag, eager to leave the potions class and the Slytherins surrounding them.

"I can't help it, Hermione," he huffed, almost knocking a bottle of potions ingredients to the floor if she hadn't caught them, "First Ron, then Snape which is nothing new so I'm not surprised," he shot the former a dirty look as they came up behind him, talking with Dean, and Seamus on their way out the door, "Now, those stupid buttons."

"Ten points from Gryffindor for mishandling of potions ingredients, Potter," Professor Snape called out to them as he passed to walk into the storeroom.

_Speak of the Devil..._

Hermione sighes, and Draco pushes an already bright red button just waiting to be pressed in the form of a very irritable Gryffindor. She shoots the blond a warning look he ignores.

"Like them, Potter?" Draco calls out loudly, causing many people around them to stop and watch what even they knew would be an ensuing fight. He pressed the button to his chest, as well as the other Slytherins, and green letters floated around them.

_Potter Stinks_

"Very funny," Hermione drawled at Draco, causing him to raise an eyebrow at how much she sounded like his uncle, " _Very witty._ " She saw Ron out of the corner of her eye, frowning at Draco, yet doing nothing to help his _best- friend._

"Want one, Granger?"

She could see the exact point all the laughing around them and Draco's smirk got to Harry, as well as when his boiling point went through the roof as he went for his wand. Draco reacted on instinct as did Hermione when they pulled their's out, sending spells at one another at the same time. But Hermione's was the only one to hit her intended target as Draco yelped when little yellow birds began pecking at his head and face, Goyle screamed and covers his boiled covered nose, and Hermione shrieks in pain and her hands fly up to her head as it feels as if it is on fire.

" _Hermione!"_ Two pairs of hands grab at her to keep her from falling to her knees from the sensation. After a moment the burning fades, and her hair is twice as curly and big as it previously was, reaching down to tangle around her feet much like Repunzle's. Hermione looked down to it, and felt the urge to burst out laughing despite how it felt to get it to the length it was now at.

"What is all this noise about?" A soft voice inquired, Severus having heard the commotion outside his class from the beginning, but not having wanted to get involved until he heard a familiar scream. The girl now looked absolutely ridiculous with her hair the way it was, and he felt the urge to do exactly what her face expressed she wanted to do.

The crowd disperses around them as the Potions Master gives them all a glare that told them silently to get to class, leaving two Gryffindors, Ron having left with the crowd after making sure Hermione was okay and avoiding Harry's stare, and three Slytherins. Severus pointed to Draco telling him to explain before sending them to the hospital wing as Draco had cuts from Hermione's little canaries, but they all looked to Harry as he interrupted the professor.

"Malfoy got Hermione!" He said, outraged they got off with nothing, but Gryffindor lost fifty points for _causing a ruckus_ in the hallway and disrupting the learning environment. "Look! He hurt her!" He pointed to the redness around her hairline where it still itched at her.

Severus looked to her with a blank face, "I see no difference. Go to class, Potter. Miss. Granger, come with me, Madame Pomfrey will have enough to deal with these two." He turns and made to sweep down the hall.

Harry opens his mouth to make another retort before she puts a hand on his arm to stop him, and then stomps off. Hermione, in her irritation at all the boys around her smirks suddenly as Severus turns to make sure she is following him just in time to see her turn Draco's hair, white as his father's, a bright shade of neon green.

He yelps once again, feeling just as Hermione did when her's grew as his elongates to reach his knees.

Severus continues to walk along as if he has seen nothing.

..

"Missy Hermy!" Winky gasped, pausing in her changing the sheets on Severus' bed as they walked into his chambers, "What happened?"

Hermione grinned sheepishly at the little wide eyed house- elf, holding her hair up in a bundle in her arms, "A little charm gone bad, Winky. Do you mind getting some shears for us, please?"

After conjuring up a pair of heavy silver, Winky retreats back into the bedroom after Hermione thanks her and Severus bids her to stand on a chair. Done with her chores, she stood by the entrance in case they were to need anything else. Potions Master Snape braided Missy Hermy's hair, cutting it off just below her bum and lays the left over rope on the table. Pulling her remaining braid over her shoulder, she grins down at his head.

"At least I don't have any dead ends now, right?" Master Snape runs his long fingers over where the rapid growth had stained the girl's hairline red, and Hermione runs her fingers through his black hair a couple inches below his shoulder. Telling him to sit on the chair she stood on, Winky marvels at how loving the man who is quite taciturn with everyone he talks to except Missy Hermy.

The Potions Master never let people take liberties with his person, but she seemed to be the exception to many things with many people. Especially not bossing him around as she did now, turning his head forward as he tries to look back at her, pulling her down into his lap tickling her into laughing.


	16. 4th Year Part Four

" _I definitely have a little attraction to bad guys, but they to have sweet hearts underneath. After all, I like to be treated well."_

~.O.~

"Oh, Harry," Hermione sighed, opening the prophet over her plate of eggs. "Be careful what you say to that horrible woman, she's worse on paper than she is in person. And that's saying something."

The boy snorted into his pumpkin juice, "I know, 'Mione. I was stuck with her in a tiny broom closet for an hour."

" _Hey-"_

" _Hermione!_ " The now standing twins said on either side of her said after wiggling their matching red brows to the blushing boy in front of her after his comment about Skeeter. " _Look down- "_

" _She wrote 'bout you too."_ Fingers pointed from left and right of her paper, aimed at a particularly long article that the she- devil had written.

Hermione frowned as she scanned it, getting to the part the twins had already found and were teasing Harry about as she handed it to the boy.

_Harry has found love at Hogwarts. His close friend, Colin Creevey, says that Harry is rarely seen out of the company of one Hermione Granger, a stunningly pretty Muggle- born girl who, like Harry, is one of the top students in the school._

"Do you think I'm stunningly pretty, Harry?" she asked, watching as his cheeks flushed once again, and out of the corner of her eye, saw Ron's ears redden as he looked over to them with a strange look on his face.

Her cheek rested on her hand as Harry looked towards her with a smirk and a glint in his eye so different from his previous years of simply stammering at any mention of her being a pretty girl, "Your beautiful 'Mione, and you know it." He tugs at a curl sitting on her shoulder.

The twins spluttered behind her as her smile gets wider, " _Well that's not- "_

" _Good enough!"_

" _We think- "_

" _You're stunningly- "_

" _Gorgeous!"_

Hermione's nose was then assaulted by the boys' unique scent of cinnamon as her cheeks were both kissed at the same time, long skilled fingers wiggling over her ribcage making her squeal and shriek.

"Fred! George!" The red- faced girl laughed, slapping the grinning boys lightly on the arms as she tried so catch her breath, not seeing two pairs of almost black eyes from two different people admiring the pink flush to her cheeks who just so happened to be sitting up at the Professor's table.

..

"Hey, Kitten," Sirius' head popped up into the fire where she kneeled by in her nightgown, reading a book.

Snapping it shut, she set it beside her and watched as the flames danced across the animagus' face. "Hello, Sirius. Harry should be up soon, he had to go with Hagrid somewhere."

"Quite, right." They were silent for a moment, with Sirius looking around shiftily until he asked the question that had been going around his head since he had talked with Remus months ago. "How did you convince Snape to let me leave with Buckbeak that day?"

Hermione smiled slightly, pulling her hair up into a bun as her neck became damp from the heat of the fire, "I appealed to his sense of humanity," she told him, knowing he wouldn't believe the excuse of the truth.

He scoffed, "I didn't know he had a heart, much less a sense of humanity left in him after becoming a bloody Death Eater." He watched her face expectantly, but she gave nothing away.

"That's a very serious thing to accuse someone of, Sirius. Especially a Hogwarts professor, you know Dumbledore would never hire a former Death Eater to look after his students." Even Hermione could see the irony in her own words, not only a former Death Eater did the Headmaster hire, but two current ones as well as their master.

He had no time to reply as Harry barged in, throwing his cloak beside the couch.

Panting, he falls beside Hermione. "Sirius!"

Hermione allows her best- friend and his godfather to talk, saying nothing until he brings up the Durmstrang Headmaster being a Death Eater, and even then keeping her thoughts to herself. He was meddling in something bringing up Death Eaters in one night, and she knew he was fully aware of that fact as he glanced at her often as he brought up the topic to gage her reaction. Severus had informed her of the fact Karkaroff being the one responsible for Barty being imprisoned in Azkaban, and to pay attention to their interactions. So far there were many loathing glares exchanged between the two, but she put it off to the current body he currently occupied as Mad- Eye Moody had also been the one to capture the former Death Eater. Who had refused to allow himself to be summoned during the summer to many of the Dark Lord's meetings, to which Severus was then responsible for holding him accountable now that he was in reach.

"Dragons!" Harry gasped out suddenly, making Hermione jump from her thoughts.

"Dragons?" Hermione questioned lowly, getting a sinking feeling in her chest.

_Oh, no..._

"The first task is going to be dragons! That's what Hagrid was telling me about, he took me to the forest to show them to me." He looked to Hermione, "Charlie brought them in."

She pouted, having wanted to see the eldest Weasley boy.

Sirius' flaming mouth opened to remark, but was interrupted by Hermione holding up her hand. "Someone's coming!" She whispered to the two men, hearing a dormitory door open squeakily.

Harry scrambled to his feet, grabbing ahold of Hermione to pull her up to hide the fire behind them, knowing if someone saw Sirius' face within the walls of Hogwarts there would be an almighty uproar. They heard a tiny _pop_ signaling his departure as Ron appeared on the bottom of the spiraling staircase in his maroon paisley pajamas, stopping dead as he saw the two of them together. Hermione in her short sleeveless white nightgown, and Harry still holding her hand.

His ears turned red as they always did when he was either embarrassed or angry. Or confronted with a woman wearing as little as she, being one of the many wizards that grew up in a household that upheld archaic traditions on how a female should dress, although it did not stop his eyes from wandering. "What're you two doing?"

Hermione looked up to Harry whose jaw was locked as he looked to the ground, his hand squeezing her's, "Nothing, just talking." She answered, knowing Harry wouldn't.

"'Bout what?" He asked tentatively, stepping forward.

"Why?" Harry lost his battle with his mouth, sneering, "You won't believe us anyway."

Ron shut down again as he scoffed, "Whatever."

"Harry-," Hermione tried, but gave up as he kissed her temple then went to follow Ron back to his room.

~.O.~

"My brain is bleeding," Harry thumped his head down onto the library table, "And he's staring at you again."

Hermione continued writing, dipping her quill into her ink as she glanced up into Viktor Krum's eyes several tables away before blushing and tiltiing her head down, writing with a new vigor despite her hand cramping, "Shut up."

"He stares at you. Every time we come in here, he appears out of nowhere, and stares at you." Harry laughs as he watches her face get darker, the parchment crackling louder. He gets up, putting the books on Dragons in his bag. "Go talk to him, he's probably scared of all your hair." He chuckles at her glare, pulling one of her wild curls as he dodges her sharp nails aiming to dig into his arm.

Hermione paused in her work for a long moment, an image lacking facial characteristics popping into her head that looked suspiciously like Severus'. Making her choice in order to pull herself once more out the melencholic moods she had tended to fall in after thinking of her and Severus' conversation weeks ago, she gathers her things into her arms only to set them onto the table Viktor Krum was occupying. Pulling out the chair opposite Viktor who was also surrounded by books as she so frequently was, she arranges a slightly forced smile at the Bulgarian's surprised face.

"Hello, I'm Hermione."

His look melted away, replaced by a smile as well, "Hello, I'm Viktor," he introduced himself unnecessarily. They both looked back down to their work.

A few minutes of silence goes by until giggling broke through the glances they sent to one another, Viktor's irritated look being unnoticed by the regular group of teenage girls who followed him around.

"Why don't you stay on the ship, or at least study there if they bother you," Hermione asked him, the girls having had distracted her as well until she cast Muffliato around their small alcove.

"Headmaster Karkaroff does not leave me alone," he said in heavily accented and halted english. "And books here at Hogwarts help me learn English language better."

"What if I agree to help you with your English, and you teach me some of your language, yes?"

His bright, slightly crooked teeth shone brightly within his dark skin, "Deal."

They shook hands to solidify their deal as Hermione's grin became genuine, the bulgarian's eyes flicking behind the girl's shoulder for a second, seeing a dark shadow blending back into the walls.

~.O.~

Harry had been detached from everyone at breakfast, so Hermione could only hug him tightly as she stood with him in the tent. She knew he was nervous about going up against a dragon, but she probably was even more so for him since she couldn't be by his side in the pit. The noise outside steadily getting louder and louder as the dragons roar, cheering, and wind all made up a crescendo.

"Hermione," he said, sounding a bit strangled, "I can't breathe."

"Oh," she loosened up a bit, but kept hold of him. "Sorry."

After a moment his tense form loosened up as he squeezed her back around her back, "Hermione." He tried again, "They're going to come in any moment."

She laughed and sniffled some before pulling back to kiss his cheek, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "Just remember to keep calm, don't lose focus, and put as much power into the spell as you can."

"I'll be fine," his smile hid his nerves well, but she could see through it from years of reading an unreadable man with a permanent scowl affixed to his face.

She squeezed his hand, "Good luck."

On her way out of the tent she passes Cedric and Fleur, kissing the latter on both cheeks and wishing them both luck as well. Wrapping her scarf under her chin before stepping out of the flapping tent, Hermione steps right into the chest of the last champion who she had yet to see.

"Viktor!" Hermione smiled up at the tall Bulgarian, "I was hoping to see you before you went out." Her cheeks flushed and felt warmer than her mittened hands.

"Hermione," he said in his thick accent, reaching for her hand and kissing the back of it.

Dumbledore stepped into the tent behind them with the other judges and a hissing bag, " _Champions! Gather round please!"_

Quickly, Hermione put her hands on the boy's shoulders, bringing him down to her level before kissing his cheek like she had Harry before walking quickly into the cold.

She twisted her hands throughout the whole challenge, getting paler and paler beside Ron who stood next to her cheering as each dragon went up against a champion. After each one getting hit at least once, and fire blown out to them by the mother dragons fighting for her babies, she sees a potential disaster for Harry even as he has his broom to escape the line of fire. Her hands are assaulted with half- moon marks, and her heart feels as if it resided in her stomach. By the time Harry was up and done with his Horntail, Ron was as pale as she was and following behind her into the hospital tent where Madame Pomfrey was treating each of the champions for at least minor burns.

As the boys tried to make- up after their ridiculous fight, Hermione couldn't hold in her tears anymore. Stomping her foot and beginning to babble nonsense in their ears, she hugs them briefly before going off to calm down.

Finding Viktor on his cot, she was relieved that he only seemed to have a few cuts and bruises, and apparently bruised ribs as he winces when she hugs him around the middle.

"Why are you crying, Hermione?" He asked in Bulgarian, putting his arm around her shoulders.

"I just hate this stupid competition already," she told him in kind. A deep pit of guilt weighed her down as she rested her head on Viktor's shoulder.

_Harry being in this competition is because of me…_

_All my fault if he gets killed..._

Hermione looks up to Viktor who smiles at her, "We are all alive, that is what counts." His eyes were black and his hands were rough and hard from years of Quidditch she could feel as they rested on her waist.

_And I like you, Viktor, but it's not the same..._

~.O.~

She couldn't rap it around in her head.

_I did this…_

_This was my design…_

Hermione watched the dust motes make patterns in the light as she sat in a window seal within the library, the one she had picked out years ago when she wanted to be alone. But some people didn't get that need apparently.

"Mione," Harry appeared next to her. "We're going to be late for class."

She had done this before, frequently as guilt and anxiety racked her body so thoroughly at times nothing could be done expect think and hope on the promises made to her by more powerful men.

" _We need his blood, Hermione." Severus told her, his face forlorn. "The Dark Lord needs his blood for the cure that will bring him to full health once more."_

_She sat in front of him, his words going into her head, and knocking around for a bit before they sunk in._

" _Oh."_

She loved Harry so much, as much as someone can love a brother who was not their own blood but might as well be, and she didn't want to see him get hurt. But it was unavoidable. She wanted to cry again. The chest heaving sobs that shook your whole body crying. Hugging Harry tightly around the waist, she realized for not the first time, that he was growing up, just as she was.

"You keep crying on me, 'Mione," He said in her ear, wrapping his around her anyway. "What's the matter?"

She sniffled, "I'm sorry. I just love you so much, and I'm just worried about everything with the tasks and your scar hurting again, and the Dark Mark showing up right when it started."

He didn't know what to say except, "I love you too."

They stood that way for several minutes until Ron showed up behind them, asking what they were doing. Hermione turned back towards the window, wiping her face as Harry tells him they were just talking.

_We seem to be using that excuse alot lately…_

She smiled at the both of them, "We're going to be late for Potions now." She avoided Severus' gaze to keep him from seeing her red eyes, and she couldn't help but think for a moment, just a moment, that it was his fault Harry was in this mess. She just wanted to protect him and herself, and in the process put her best friend face- to- face with the man who murdered his parents.

Then the guilt sets in again as she immediately hates herself for thinking something like that. Knowing that Harry would most likely be dead once the Dark Lord grew to power once more if she had not had the incentive to intervene herself into his uprising.

_It's Tom's fault, not Severus'... he promised power, and love, and gave only death and madness..._

~.O.~

"Will you go to the yule ball with me, Hermione?" Viktor looked to her with hopeful eyes, the wind around them ruffling the collar around his fur coat.

She smiled at him over her book, closing it while keeping her finger as a marker, "And what else would I get out of it other than the pleasure of your company?" she asked teasingly with a straight face, watching as he picked up an empty glass bottle from the ground beside them.

Pulling out his wand, he transfigures the bottle flawlessly into a little miniature dragon. Twirling his wand around the tiny thing for a moment, he gives it to her as it starts moving it's little legs and wings.

"Oh!" Hermione laughs as Crookshanks comes out of nowhere and chases it down the riverbank, the small dragon taking small leaps before testing it's delicate little wings. "Be careful Crooks!" she called out to the orange cat who was entirely too close to the Black Lake for her taste before turning back to Viktor who was smiling at her expectantly, she took his hand, "Of course I will go with you, Viktor."

Crookshanks brings back a slightly squealing glass dragon in his pointy little teeth, dropping it in Hermione's hands and giving Viktor a little glare.

_You don't smell like Potions Master… why does Mistress smell like you and not him?_

_.._

They met in a little corner of the castle where no one patrolled anymore due to no rooms being in use in that particular hallway anymore. You would think they would patrol it more since there was no one to stop kids from fooling around there, but Hermione and Viktor took advantage of that oversight.

It was hot and stuffy from their close body heat, and it made a contrast between the cold stone at Hermione's back as Viktor's hands slid her shirt over her head, his warm hands then going to her bare chest. Fumbling lips found each other in the dark that only Hermione could see semi- well in with her slitted eyes, making their blood pump faster, and faster through their bodies. Viktor lifted Hermione's legs up to wrap around his waist to accommodate their height difference, and lips skimmed down her neck to suck on one erect nipple. No one had made her feel like this before, rather no one had touched her in this way before. The thing was though, in the dark with her eyes closed, she could imagine the rough hands that had slid into her skirt and up inside of her belonged to someone else, and the dark head was that of someone else also. She liked Viktor plenty, his hands especially, but as she roamed her hands under his clothed back, she wanted something other than smooth planes and muscles to feel.

Their breathing was loud in their little space of the world. Hermione felt like her heart was about to explode as Viktor's skilled hand moved between her thighs, bringing her to a climax like none she could bring herself to.

Her eyes opened to meet black ones so similar to another pair, and she was taken aback for a moment.

_And so very sad that her and Severus had barred themselves from doing anything of this sort… if a boy could make her body sing in this way, what could the man she loved do with his infinitely skilled fingers?_

~.O.~

It was a windy and sleet day outside, so Hermione spent the day in Severus' quarters curled up next to the fire as everyone stayed in their common rooms by the fires. Draco, who she had scarcely seen since the year started, having left minutes ago to go back to his own common room, Hermione had pouted and jumped on her absentee friend's ankles to keep him from leaving although his words of unfinished homework persuaded her to release her hostage. Plopping down to play with the little dragon Viktor made her with Crookshanks, they sent it back and forth to one another on the carpet even as she felt a restless energy rack her body for no reason at all as she turned to an equally restless Severus who lay frowning on his couch reading a book ever since she appeared unannounced in his chambers.

Hopping up onto his legs, she made her way up his body and under his book to his bare chest. Staring at him for a few moments, waiting for him to look down to her, she stretches out and places the pink pads of her paws on his nose, and cheeks, and whines.

He sighs softly and puts his book on the table, "Yes, Hermione?" his wire rimmed glasses were perched upon the end of his nose.

She whined once more before turning back to a human, wrapping her hands under her chin on his stomach before sticking her feet under his legs. "Why are you ignoring me? Did I do something?"

He takes off his glasses before interlocking his fingers around her back, looking up to the ceiling and collecting his thoughts before answering her. Deciding to be as blunt as he usually was with only her, he asks her a question he already knows the answer to, but can not stop it from being voiced.

"Why are you dating Viktor?"

She smiles strangely for a moment before dropping her eyes and tracing a scar that went halfway around his nipple. She doesn't give an answer to his question although she does say, "I was going to break up with him after the Yule Ball."

"Why?"

She doesn't look him in the eye as she blushes lightly and says it doesn't feel right.

~.O.~

"Hey, Hermione."

The whispers of her name were beginning to bug her as her head bent down even lower towards her paper while she wrote faster.

" _Psst!"_

_Smack!_

"Mr. Weasley," Severus' drawl was heard throughout the study hall. "If you could refrain from opening your mouth for the rest of the hour, or would you rather talk in detention?"

Ron's face turned bright red as he tilted his head down to his parchment. This lasted only five more minutes though, as Hermione predicted.

"Herm-"

" _What?!"_ Hissed from her mouth, looking up into two startled faces.

"You're a girl," he began.

She looked at him blankly, "Very astute Ronald."

He continued like he didn't hear her, "Go to the ball with one of us?" He actually looked kind of hopeful.

"Don't bring me into this," Harry mumbled from beside him, his glasses falling a bit down his nose.

"What? You don't want a date? You're a champion Harry, you have to have a date."

Hermione interrupted them, "I would go with Harry, but I already have a date."

Harry finally looked up with a frown, "Who?"

Ron was getting red again, "Why not me?"

_Smack!_

"Detention."

Severus smacks both boys on the head this time as he gives her the look she had known was coming as he overheard their conversation.

..

"'Mione?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

" _Why?"_

"Quit whining Ron, it isn't going to get you anywhere." They all walked through the portrait hole to giggling girls all looking up to a tiny owl flitting around in circles.

"Hermione," Harry said suddenly, looking down to her mouth, "What happened to your teeth? They're all pointy."

Hermione pulled her hand down from where it had hovered on her lips, giggling a little bit.

"You're a little late noticing, darling."

"Stupid feathery little git," Ron came back to them muttering, holding poor little Pigwidgeon in his fist who only hoots happily as his head protruded over Ron's fist.

Hermione scowled, "Ron!"

He stopped his undertones to look momentarily confused before she took the little owl out of his hand gently, cooing to him.

"I swear, Ron. You have no sense of the meaning _gentle_."

They all ended sitting up on one of the boys beds in the dormitories as Harry read Pigwidgeon's letter out loud…

_Dear Harry,_

_Congratulations on getting past the horntail, whoever put your name in the Goblet shouldn't be feeling too happy right now! I was going to suggest a Conjunctivitis curse, as a dragon's eyes are its weakest point but your way was just as good, I'm impressed._

_Don't get complacent, though, Harry. You've only done one task: whoever put you in for the Tournament's got plenty more opportunity if they're trying to hurt you. Keep your eyes open- particularly when the person we discussed is around- and concentrate on keeping yourself out of trouble._

_Keep in touch, I still want to hear about anything unusual._

_Padfoot and Moony_

Hermione frowned, feeling the little owl on her shoulders nip her curls and hoot again in her ear, "He sounds exactly like Moody," Harry said as he tucked the letter away.

"He's right, Harry." Hermione agreed with Sirius, "You really ought to look at that egg, start working out what it means-"

"He's got ages, 'Mione!" Ron interrupted her, ignoring her glare, "Want a game of chess, Harry."

Harry gave her an apologetic glance as he pulled out his wizarding chessboard and the pieces.


	17. 4th Year Part Five

" _You don't need a perfect relationship. All you need is someone who loves your weirdness, wants to spend time with you, and respects you."_

~.O.~

Hermione's paws were cold and she was tired, but she wanted to see Severus after she woke up from a dream she couldn't remember, although the feeling of not particularly liking it in the moment was fresh in her mind. The wards opened his chamber doors for her as she pressed one small paw to the door frame, allowing her to prance sleepily in, nose open Severus' cracked door, jump onto his bed, and then proceed to climb onto his chest to put her little black nose to his larger one.

Severus opened his eyes slightly as he feels a warm weight utop him, coming face to face with tiredly blinking caramel eyes and a cold nose. After many times of waking this way, he merely rolls her over to his side, and makes her squeak as he wraps his arms around her now human body. Feeling her shiver as the dungeon air penetrates her thin nightgown that has replaced her white fur, he throws the covers over her as she kisses his jaw in thanks.

"What are you doing here so early? Shouldn't you be waking those two dunderheads?" He asked in his sleep roughened voice, his legs jerking a bit as Hermione pressed her cold feet under his calves and her hands onto his bare back.

"Because we have to watch the sun rise, Severus. It's tradition."

"Since when?"

"Since now."

Hermione was determined to get him up, so she braved the cold floor in her bare feet to pull on his arm as he groaned, sliding sideways into her spot and ending facedown in the sheets. Much like his House's namesake, he detested going out into the frigid winter air even as their pelts kept them warm in their animal forms.

" _C'mon, Severus!"_

_.._

_Hermione stands behind Tom, brushing his thick black hair as clumps of it came out with each brushstroke. With his detoriorating health, she had taken up the role as caretaker, without using that specific word of course. He would never like someone else admitting one of his weaknesses, even herself. The man sitting in front of her had dark circles around his eyes, a tray of uneaten food laying on the vanity he sat underneath._

" _What do you do for yule break, Hermione?"_

_She smiles at him, meeting his eyes in the mirror, "We used to have a family party I had to attend, or we go out to the theatre, but since starting school Severus and I will spend at least Christmas day together by ourselves. Sometimes we will sneak out to have lunch with Draco, Lucius, and Narcissa."_

_Picking up a velvet box that sat beside his tray, he held it out to her. "Since you can not get away from the castle this year, here is a little gift from me to you, with a few add ons. It is a small token of my appreciation for all you do to care for me."_

_Inside the box was a pretty little bracelet with multiple charms already on it, representing the people who gifted them to her._

_.._

After the sun rose enough for Hermione to make her way to the boy's dorm with presents in hand, she allowed Severus to retreat back to his semi- warm rooms to dress for the day. Fingering the new protective charm on her bracelet, Hermione entered the boys room to find Dobby standing over Harry with their noses almost touching.

"Dobby?" She whispered to him, not wanting to wake the boys yet as the curtains surrounding the other beds were all closed, because gods forbid they wake before 10 o'clock.

_That's about to change though…_

"Miss Hermione," Dobby squeaked as if he had been caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar, standing up ramrod straight and wringing his hands together around a small package dominated by curly multicolored ribbons.

Hermione chuckled, "Why are you standing above Harry? Are you trying to give him a present?"

He nodded vigorously, almost causing the multiple hats topped with a tinkling bell balancing on his head to wobble dangerously, "I's not wanting to wake Harry Potter. Harry Potter be mad at Dobby."

Walking up to the end of the bed, she placed her little pile of presents next to the one already there, "I can wake him up, he never gets mad at me." She smirks at his wide eyes before climbing lightly on the end before throwing herself bodily onto his sleeping form.

" _Ah!"_ Harry yells out briefly in surprise at being woken up in such a way, scowling darkly when he sees his best friend's face in front of his own: laughing. " _Dammit, Hermione!"_ She continues to laugh even as she hears the other boys scramble out of bed, and Harry grabs her waist to moves her to the other side of the bed. He glares at her, "I hate it when you do that."

"Us too," Ron comes over with his gifts, sitting on Harry's chest at the end of the bed and proceeding to open them with his hair pointing in all directions.

"Sorry, guys," Hermione smiled sheepishly at Seamus, Neville, and Dean as they tied open their curtains.

Tired acknowledgements came from the others in the room as Harry took the present Dobby was twisting anxiously in his bony hands, eyes wide with either fear of Hermione having upset 'Harry Potter' or excitement about how he would react to his gift.

"We have something for you too, Dobby," Hermione finally gets through her giggles to pull a purple pair of socks wrapped in shiny silver paper out of her stack, and hands it to the wide- eyed elf. "I hope you like them, I knitted them myself."

He was utterly delighted.

"Socks are Dobby's favorite, favorite clothes, miss and sirs!" He ripped off his old mismatched ones and pulled her new ones up above his knees. "But you've done two of the same Missy."

"For shame, 'Mione!" Ron gasped, "How could you make such a _mistake_?"

Without looking at him she slapped him on the back of the head before stretching the red oversized jumper she had stolen from her father years ago over her hands and bare knees, balancing her chin on top of them while smiling at the little elf.

"I thought you might like a change."

"These are really… interesting… Dobby. Thanks." Harry told him, causing the house elf's big green eyes to become shiny.

"You're most welcome, Harry Potter. Dobby must get to the kitchens now, sir, we is already making the Yule dinner in the kitchens!" Waving goodbye to the three of them, he disapparates with a small pop.

Hermione takes the blue sock with the broomsticks on it, and the red sock with the golden little snitches on it, rubbing her thumb over the stitching.

"Different aren't they?" Harry smiles.

She nods chuckling a bit before pulling the too big gift over her feet which happened to be much smaller than Harry's, grinning at him as they come up to the middle of her calf. Her feet had gotten chilled in her shorts even though Gryffindor Tower was much warmer than the Dungeons.

"Oh! I almost forgot," She hands Ron a tin can full of her mother's special caramel toffee christmas cookies, "For you Ron," he immediately digs in with a hasty thanks. "And for you, Harry. Merry Christmas."

Harry tied the leather wrap bracelet around his wrist not unlike the one she had given Severus years ago woven with protective charms and blood magic, though his eye was caught by the new glittering panther charm on her bracelet that he swore wasn't there before something new that she had acquired during the summer, most likely from her parents for an early Yule gift, the new charm shone even more brightly in the light than the little fox, snake, elephant, and lion that lined up next to them.

..

"Have fun, Gin," Hermione told the redhead as she hastily huged her and heading towards the dungeons, fleeing the others in her year that resembled more a pack of wolves ready to pounce on their prey with various makeup materials in their claws than girls getting ready for a ball. "Neville really is sweet, don't listen to what the boys are saying." She juggled her gown and makeup bags in her hands.

Ginny smiles at her appreciatively, giggling at her friend's attempt at a hasty exit,"Where are you going?"

" _Hermione!"_

"Fleeing, I'll see you later. Cover me, please."

..

"Guys are lucky," Hermione tells Draco and Severus from behind the dressing divisor Severus had transfigured for her. Twisting pieces of hair away from her temples and securing it behind her head with an oval moonstone Lucius and Narcissa had gifted her, she nodded to her still wild, but slightly more tame and not frizzy curls. "You only have to have one pair of dress robes. Girls had to do their makeup, get shoes, _and_ a dress..." She finishes her natural looking makeup with a line of shiny tinted gloss.

"You could have always taken Winky's offer to help," Severus' voice was muffled as if he were talking into the glass tumbler he had on his work table when she had entered.

"Or you could have asked Mother. She would have come through the floo." Draco sounded bored.

Peeking her head from behind the screen, she frowned at the already fully dressed men. Both looking polar opposites in hair color, but the same in dressing style. Smiling Hermione rolled her eyes at Godfather and Godson, stepping into her dress.

"Don't get drunk, Severus. You're a chaperon, remember?" She stepped into their sight, not seeing the looks both boys had given her as she stood in front of the full length mirror. "Zip me up, please?"

"You look beautiful, Hermione." Draco's reflection smiled at her from where he sat on the couch.

Severus downed his drink, coming up behind Hermione as she made alterations to the lace neckline and beading. Slowly rolling up the zipper, their eyes met in the mirror and she smiled at him as if the warmth of his fingers were not spreading through her back through the thin material of her red dress. Pulling out his wand, he changed the metal teeth to cloth covered buttons as she had requested when telling him of the dress she had wanted.

"You are stunning," he whispered in her ear, making her shiver as his hand brushes her single pearl necklace while kissing her temple.

Twirling towards him in her short strappy heels, loving the feel of the red gown floating around her ankles, she pushed his shoulders back to see what she could change in both their high collared robes.

"You could have made an effort, Sev." She eyed his slightly better material frock coat, then Draco's. "Next you'll have the scowl to match, Draco. For all your mother and father's style, you surprisingly choose to take after the one man who is intent on staying within the 19th century's monochromatic spectrum. "

He smirked at her, stepping closer and spreading his arms out to his sides. "Do with me what you will."

"Careful with your words darling, they may get you into trouble someday." She chuckles at him, making alterations to his plain black outer robes, adding a subtle shiny silver design. Changing his black dress shirt to the same color as well, and shrinking the neckline to make him look less like a vicar, and more a dashing young man. Turning to Severus who raises an eyebrow which she ignores, his outer robes are turned into more of a velvety fabric, his frock coat losing some of it's snake embossed buttons to give way to shiny cloth covered Slytherin green, and his hair tied back with a leather cord.

"Do we satisfy your specifications, madame?" Severus drawls, rubbing the velvet between his thumb and forefinger.

"Well enough," she chuckles, kissing both their cheeks before going back to Gryffindor Tower to mother her other boys.

..

"Ruffles! Lace! It's all back again!" Hermione could hear Ron whinging before she even got to their room, passing Fred and George in the hall as they went to meet their dates.

" _Looking good, Hermione!"_ They both whistled from either side of her, grinning.

She laughed as she got to the screaming boys' dorm, "Thank you, boys."

The other fourth year boys didn't do a good job of hiding their laughter if the shade of Ron's face was anything to go by, but it quickly faded back to the normal color as he caught sight of Hermione in the doorway.

"'Mione!" Harry turned to her the red head called out, turning his body as if to hide his clothing.

Smiling, he came up to hug her, her head level at his shoulder even with her heels. "You look beautiful, 'Mione." His lips brushed her cheek as he pulled back.

She smiled, kissing him back as they turned to see Ron fussing at his clothes in the mirror. "You need help again, Ron?"

"I thought you fixed these before, on the train!" He gestured vaguely down his body.

"Well, for starters, the charm wore off. They don't last forever," she muttered as she made his adjustments, severing lace here, shortening there, lengthening here and there, and changing it from faded maroon to the dark purple she had previously altered them to be. Twisting his shoulders back towards the mirror, he threw up his hands, and hugged her as he lifted her off her feet.

" _Thank Merlin!"_

"Will you tell us who your date is now?" Harry asked as she straightened his robes and hair.

She grinned, "No, Harry. You will have to wait and see. I have a feeling Ron's cheeks will be permanently stained red by the end of the night."

..

As they passed the doorway into a sea of red, black, and white, all eyes were on the line in which she was a part of. Her nerves going haywire as she dug her nails into Viktor's red coat, but as she found Severus' eyes in the group of teachers they loosened slightly as her lips curved slightly more upwards. They were led up to the High Table that had been modified for just this occasion for the feast before the champion's dance that would open the night.

Hermione talked with Viktor about his home and Durmstrang, smiling at a tortured looking Harry who sat next to Percy.

As the dance began, Hermione's nerves about being watched by so many people surfaced again as they took the middle of the floor and the music from the Weird Sisters beat in time with her heart. Keeping her eyes on Viktor instead of the people surrounding them, judging them on every step they took, she concentrated on her breathing in, and out, in, and out. It didn't take as long as Hermione thought it would. The music turning soft and calm to a more appropiate _teenage_ bass.

Some of the other Durmstrang boys came over, and Hermione took her chance to cool down on the sidelines after a few upbeat dances, "Viktor, I am going to find Harry." He nodded to her, and she left him to dance with his friends.

Finding some spiked punch, Severus came into view as he danced with one of the girls from his house when the song changed to a slower one once again. It was supremely _odd_ finding Professors holding hands with their students, and she was surprised any would do so in the first place. Other than herself perhaps. After sitting on a nearby couch for a while, enjoying the little peace of solitude in this kind of affair, Severus snuck up behind her.

"Why are you sitting by yourself, girl?"

She turned, smiling up at him slightly before looking back to where Moody was swaying in his seat as he drank from his flask, "I feel guilty, about Viktor. And I don't like dances, I only came because everyone else did even though I knew all the noise was going to give me a headache."

His hand creeped underneath her hair onto her neck, the cold of it feeling good against her feverish skin as he simply laid it there. She was glad they were in a more secluded corner of the hall where no one would pay attention to her actions as she leaned back against him. Putting her hand utop his, she held it there and closed her eyes.

"Would you like to go outside?"

Viktor found them sitting on a stone bench near the dark red roses where some pixies laughed together, one of them glowing brighter as she flew around Hermione's hair and pulled on one of the strands. The Professor grabbed it around the tiny waist, and pulled it's wings off before fusing them together and crafting together a delicate butterfly clip which he carefully placed in Hermione's twisted up hair. The Bulgarian took a step forward, but hesitated on the next as he saw his date slap the scornful man's arm. His eyebrows shot up as the man he had heard so much negativity about smiled and grabbed Hermione around the waist when she stood up with a scolding look on her face, Professor Snape smiling down to her as she looked around at the other fairies. Despite her previous expression which then melted, she wrapped her arms around his neck as snow fell all around them and started to dance to the soft music floating through the Great Hall.

Viktor left them, and waited for Hermione to come find him while two boys hiding behind a group of winter blue roses stared open mouthed at the couple.

..

_She looked up to the other man with a smile, a smile he had never before seen on her face directed towards him._

"I know you don't like me the way I like you, Hermione. But I understand," He kissed her forehead, and left her to her thoughts. Hermione leaned back against the stone wall, staring at him with sad eyes as he walked down the deserted hallway they had stopped in after he rescued her from the clutches of an angry Weasley and weirded out Chosen One.

Her head fell back against the stone wall, sliding to the cold floor with her eyes closed. She felt him beside her, the only indication of him before she felt his robes along her arm was his scent. The lovely scent she never seemed to get out of her brain.

"Am I a bad person?" This question sounded all too familiar, taking her back to a time when a boy called her a mean word and then fell down some stone steps. Unlike the time before in a more precarious situation, guilt made her stomach roil as she rested her head on Severus' shoulder.

He thought back on the same incident as she did, kissing her forehead, "Far from it, lovely girl."

~.O.~

"I swear, Harry," Hermione rubbed her eyes, feeling them droop heavily from lack of sleep. "What are you going to do when I'm not around anymore to help you with every little thing?"

Harry frowned down at the top of her curly head, looking away from the heavy golden egg he held under his arm. "What is that supposed to mean?"

He heard her little sigh once more, and realized not for the first time, that she was just so tiny and fragile. But appearances hid many things and she could be just as scary as Voldemort if provoked.

"When we're not in Hogwarts anymore, when we will eventually have to face the Dark Lord, and I might not be with you all day every day for that time."

His face hardened as it normally did when someone mentioned Voldemort, and he paused his steps as Hermione continued on to the heavy door that hid the Prefects Bathroom.

"Why do you call him the Dark Lord, 'Mione?" he questioned.

She was the one to now pause her brisk walking, not looking him in the eye as her hand raised to touch the stone walk next to her. "It's habit now I guess, some witches and wizards don't take to kindly to the name he made for himself, and most don't know his birth one."

She continued into the candle filled bathroom, dragging her hand along the damp stones as Harry trailed behind her and attempting to keep silent as they got to the benches.

"What are you doing?" Harry's voice goes slightly high as Hermione drags her shirt over her head, dropping it to the white marbled floor, and proceeding to pull her curls into a high bun.

She laughs at him, "It's not a big deal, Harry." She turned around, unbuttoning her jeans and toeing off her flats. "I'll even turn around, wouldn't want to offend your delicate sensibilities."

"I don't mind," a giggling girly voice came from the filling pool that served as the bath. "Take your clothes off Harry, I promise I won't look." Moaning Myrtle covered her circled glasses almost identical to Harry's with her hands.

"I'll not be able to look at Ron after this," he muttered, Hermione hearing this chuckles again as the bathroom echoed with Myrtle's giggling. They both had come to the conclusion that Ron had a little crush on her after all his muttering and whinging about her going to the yule ball with Viktor, and it certainly explained his odd behavior before. He turned his back to his friend, and the pretty blonde sleeping mermaid that lay in the stained glass window, her hair moving each time she breathed out.

After their bits were covered in the bubbly soap within the swimming- pool- sized bath, they put the egg into the water and let the singing fill their ears after doing a few laps to relax their minds.

" _Come seek us where our voices sound,_

_We cannot sing above the ground,_

_And while you're searching, ponder this:_

_We've taken what you'll sorely miss,_

_An hour long you'll have to look,_

_And to recover what we took,_

_But past an hour- the prospects black_

_Too late, it's gone. It won't come back."_

_.._

They made their way back to the common room through the dark halls, talking quietly as to how Harry could breath underwater short of turning himself into a fish.

They made an effort to keep their voices low so as to not let them bounce off the walls. "No thank you, I would prefer not to have permanent gills growing on my neck."

"I will ask Professor Snape if there is a potion that can help," they were quiet for a bit before he made an observation he had noticed so many times before, but had never said anything.

"You don't hate him like the rest of the school does," she shot him a disapproving look that looked more sinister in her wand light than it would normally, "You don't even dislike him. You even danced with him during the Yule Ball in the garden. With no one around. Alone."

She grabbed his arm to stop him, crinkling the Marauders Map in her other hand, "I don't hate him, Harry, and neither should you. I told you before that he isn't a bad person, he just has a bad attitude most of the time to keep people from bothering him. Besides," she pats his cheek, "If he was as evil as you and everyone else thought he wouldn't have saved our lives as many times as he has."

"You're always defending him, you know," he stared at the map, watching Filch and Mrs. Norris.

"Someone has to," she said quietly. "Have I ever told you it was him and Dumbledore that came to explain like Hagrid did with you?" He shook his head, "You and him have a certain relationship with each other, and it's the same with us, but different."

Harry said nothing as Hermione saw Barty Crouch's name show up on the map in Severus' office, and by some miracle, Peeves decided to show up just before Harry could see. Or so she thought as he suddenly points right to the place she had her eye on before Peeves turned the corner.

" _Students out of bed!"_ His manic laughter bounced off the high ceilings, doing exactly what they wanted to not. His transparent shape was only _just_ seen in the light of the wand. " _Potty and girly mudblood out of bed together!"_ Water balloons were pelted at them before the poltergeist disappeared through the wall as Harry dropped the egg that then proceeded to squeal.

" _Get under the cloak!"_ She tells him, although decided he was taking too long and pushed him towards a tapestry just as a bare chested, and barefooted figure appeared in black sleep pants with a leather cord tied round on his wrist, his wand significantly brighter than Hermione had her's.

Lighting a few torches, Severus picked up the screaming egg from where it still spun on the uneven stone, and closed it. Tucking it under his arm as he came right in front of the tapestry, smelling the air. Peeves came screaming again down the hall, but cowers as soon as he sees the Potions Master and flees whimpering back towards the way he came.

"Come out," he says softly, knowing the little mouse of a girl was around.

Harry said nothing as Hermione stepped out from behind the curtain, right into the Professor's chest. He was tempted to step out beside her, but was pushed back by her little hand before he could.

"Hello, Professor Snape," she told the man looking down at her now dripping nightgown she had transfigured her clothes into.

He raised a black brow, his eyes flicking behind her in question before stepping back at her confirming nod. They both turned towards Moody as he came growling around the corner.

"Snape! What is all the racket?" His eye was moving all over the place, seeming to settle on the concealed figure behind Hermione after roaming over Severus' chest and Hermione's gown. "Wake up the whole castle!"

"I have it handled," he told the ex- Auror coolly whose wooden leg echoed down the hall as he grunted and turned back to where he came from, but not before roaming an eye once more over Hermione, causing her to shiver slightly in revulsion.

"What is it you think you are doing?" Severus' eyebrow was raised once more, the arm holding the egg twitched.

Hermione smiled widely up at him, grateful her back was turned towards Harry as he looked through the gap from where he stood.

"Helping a friend with their egg, sir."

"Detention, Miss. Granger." He fought to keep a straight face, "Come with me."

"Do you have a potion to help breathing underwater, sir?" Harry heard Hermione ask, their voices farther away as he peaked out to make sure it was clear to reveal himself. Watching them get farther down the hall, his breath caught in his throat when he saw the professor's scarred figure in the dim light disappear altogether as the torches were extinguished.

~.O.~

Hermione felt like she was floating in cold air, but was held to the earth by a weight around her ankle. There were strange screams and screeches all around her, as if she were in a room that echoed and you couldn't discern where the person's voice originated from. Her head was cloudy, and heavy, and she was scared. Scared because of this loss of control, scared because she couldn't find it in herself to wake up from this horribly disorienting dream.

She wanted Severus, because Severus fixes everything and protects her. Even from herself at times.

The screaming steadily increased into a pressure within her ears, and then she was grabbed around the middle before she floated away into forever nothingness. Suddenly, her lungs felt like they had never had air before and her eyes had never seen the light of day as she encountered the surface of the Black Lake. Coughing, there was a different kind of screaming around her now as multiple someones said her name, although her body was so weighed down all she could do was lay on her back and try to unblur her eyes while her chest heaved.

"I've got her," one voice stood out from the others as someone picked her up and carried her for a few moments before she was placed on something soft.

"Sev-" she tried talking but started coughing once again as it felt like sandpaper was rubbing against her vocal cords, her eyes finally focused enough to see Severus pressing a vial to her lips.

"Drink this, lovely girl." His voice was worried, and the taste of mint and chocolate lingering in her throat as her eyes close for a moment. "What were you thinking agreeing to this task?" Hermione could hear his teeth grinding together.

Looking around the small enclosed space of tent they were in, she sat up and ran her fingers over his jaw, "Stop grinding your teeth, it's not good for you." Reaching up, he grabbed her fingers, kissing them before putting his forehead to them, "The Headmaster made it clear that we were the only choices."

He huffed knowing Dumbledore would have done what he wanted regardless of anyone's wishes. Watching Hermione quietly as she pulled various lake- life from her hair, she pulls out a squirming beetle, placing it into the bottle Severus has pulled from his seemingly endless pockets.

"I was scared, Severus," her voice was small.

Sounds of more people entering the tent came from behind the thin fabric of her privacy curtain, "I'll see you later," Hermione kissed the back of his hand that had been entwined with her's.

"Lovely girl," he kissed her forehead back in answer, sweeping out of the tent as Harry barged in, and right behind him little Gabrielle Delacour.

"Hermione!" the wet little girl jumped up on her bed, quickly followed by her sister. "Did you hear the merpeople when we were asleep?"


	18. 4th Year Part Six

" _Lighten up on yourself. No one is perfect. Gently accept your humanness."_

~.O.~

" _Aconite… Acromantula venom… low on lacewing flies… leeches… powdered bicorn horn… low on knotgrass..."_ Hermione shook her head and checked off her list as she went in alphabetic order, balancing on a tall wooden ladder in Severus' storeroom.

Severus had his hair tied back in a leather cord again as he stood over a potion in his button up and slacks, and Hermione just could not stop herself from thinking how utterly handsome he was when he was not hiding his face beneath his hair.

"We're low on Polyjuice ingredients, Sev."

"I am aware," he stared intently at his cauldron as she hugged him from behind, careful not to jostle his arm and ruin the new batch.

"Barty needs to make his own damn potion, you have enough things to do for the Dark Lord as it is."

"I do as I am told," he drawled sarcastically, "As always."

"You do what is in your best interest, to keep yourself in good graces." She picked up the bottled beetle they had kept from it stowing away in Hermione's hair from the lake, holding it up to her face to examine the little marks around it's eyes.

"In _our_ best interest. Although, you don't seem to need it as you are _always_ in his good graces." He finally looked up to her in time to see her lip curling inwards in a snarl at him, putting out the fire with his wand. "Pluck the wings off and scoop out the eyes."

She rolled her eyes as the beetle squirmed as if it had heard his instructions and understood them, her lip receded, "Such a sweet talker."

Starting to tug at a wing, Hermione let out a startled scream as the little bug turned into a frightened curly headed Daily Prophet journalist. The woman falls to the floor as Hermione does the opposite and jumps up to sit on the counter, Severus immediately coming between the two girls and pointing his wand into the blonde's face.

"Give me the jar, Hermione."

~.O.~

Severus followed Hermione's smell which was, as usual, in the middle of her two friends as another animal's floats from the cave which sat at the top of the rocky hill.

_Sirius Black was a serious pain in the arse..._

Sirius was back to being as skinny and dirty as he had been when he had escaped Azkaban Hermione saw as he proceeded to scruff down the food they had brought, his wrist had to be as bony as Harry's. Apparently he had been skulking around Hogwarts instead of holing himself up in his ancestral home with Remus who was now living there as he was ordered to have been between bites of the chicken and bread he shoved into his mouth, he told the trio of Barty Crouch and his son as Hermione pet Buckbeak who had come over and put his head into her lap.

She knew what Harry was thinking right before the words came out of his mouth with a frown on his face, "That's not possible. The map said he was in the castle a few days ago."

Hermione continued to pet the Hippogriff's feathers until she heard Severus' name, and a rustle outside the cave that accompanied the scent of the man.

Sirius hummed at Harry's observation of Severus and Headmaster Karkaroff's interaction one day after class, his eyes slid to Hermione's curly head which was still angled downwards, "It must be the Dark Mark." Everyone was silent before Sirius decided to speak again, almost absently. "He always knew more curses than anyone else when we started Hogwarts."

Hermione spoke up then as Harry grimaced remembering the scarred back of the Potions Master, "Maybe he had need of them to protect himself against people who decided to bully him once they saw a boy smaller than them." She looked up to an uncomfortably observant animagus and confused boys, "But now look at him, he's not so little now is he?"

Harry changed the subject, "Did you see a Dark Mark on his arm 'Mione?"

Ron interrupted now, looking as bewildered as can be, "When would she have seen his arm? He only sheds his robes once a year like the snake that he is." He laughed at his own joke along with Sirius and Harry, although the latter one's was smaller. Ron had been kept in the dark as to their little tryst into the prefects bathroom, and he seemed to be getting his panties into a twist at the mere mention of Hermione being anything resembling a girl. There was also the fact that maybe, just maybe, Harry no longer held the Potion Master's bad attitude against him as much as previously as Hermione was always telling him. Harry thought of all the scars he could have obtained if the Dursley's had decided to physically abuse him even rougher than they already did.

Hermione kept her face carefully blank, "Snakes shed their skins two to four times a year, Ronald, and no, Harry. He doesn't have a Dark Mark that I have seen."

"How would you _know_?" Ron was getting frustrated now, his curiosity unsatiated.

Severus decides this to be the best time to integrate himself into the little group, and Hermione can't help but feel relieved to see his tall figure come through the shadows into the little magical lights floating in the cave. The boys in the group shot up from their seats on their logs with their wands up, but Hermione stayed where she was as he came into the light.

"What are you doing here Severus?" Sirius asked before the boys could shoot their mouths off, his wand lowering but kept in his hand. Harry and Ron followed his movements. "How did you find us?"

He sneers slightly as he moved around the small cave, menovuring himself to stand behind Hermione and Buckbeak. "You should really cover your tracks better, Black." He cocked his head to the side as Hermione stood, brushing dirt off her jeans. "What would Dumbledore think of you being out of your cage I wonder?"

"What are you going to do? Tell him?" Ron pops off, his wand twitching as if he would fire on his most frightening professor.

"Watch your tone boy," Severus growls lowly enough for only Hermione to hear, as well as Sirius whose eyes widen slightly, not knowing he was an animagus.

Harry opened his mouth before Hermione interrupted, "We should get back to the castle, we're almost due back."

"We can find our own way back, _professor,_ " Ron says rudely, passing Hermione and Severus who stood at the mouth of the cave.

"Are you coming, Hermione?" Harry paused by them, glancing towards the tall man beside her.

"I'll walk back with Professor Snape." Hermione nudges Severus as she says goodbye to Sirius.

He rolls his eyes without looking towards the man, "Try not to get caught, Black."

Sirius follows the little group behind Severus and Hermione, feeling the wind blow his fur back from his body as he listens to their voices carry on the wind. The breeze shifts just enough for the couple to smell him as they pause when Severus grabs her elbow to stop her from tripping, and they shift into their animagi forms to keep him from following them. It succeeded as Sirius stops in shock at the sight of the two contrasting forms entering the forest that ran up to Hogwarts.

~.O.~

Severus floated quietly down the dark hallway, his robes billowing behind him as he kept an eye out in search of students out past curfew. His lips were relaxed although they did not typically always tell the truth, contrary to what the students thought his eyes were more telling if they pulled up enough courage to look into them. Like Hermione did.

Shuffling sounds were heard in a dark crevice in front of him, filled with low sounds of panting. "Twenty points from Gryffindor, Mr. Weasley. Miss. Johnson." His thin lips twisted in irritation at the third couple of teens he found himself in front of, "The next time I find you sequestered away together after curfew, you will find yourselves in the middle of the Forbidden Forest picking potions ingredients after curfew. Without your wands."

George and Angelina scurried past the dour man, silent for once with no quips to add to his obviously foul mood. Severus now shook his head for an entirely different reason.

_How are they to fight in a war if they cannot even push past their fear of a teacher?_

Walking back down to the dungeons, he hears tiny little footsteps. _Almost_ silent in their quest of following him. Speeding up slightly, his mouth once again shows genuine amusement as he feels a light tugging at the back of his robes, his lips quirked upward. Turning around suddenly, Hermione bumps her little head into his legs as her toy is ripped from her grasp. With a small whine of discontent, she sprawls onto her stomach after losing her balance before getting up with a shake of her head. Looking up to him with playful eyes, her tail wagged lazily from side to side until he picks her up and balances her little body on his shoulders. Licking the place under his ear where she knows he is ticklish, he basks in her small presence as it was, rubbing her nose up and down it's tiny length until she falls asleep.

~.O.~

"Dammit, Harry," Hermione gritted her teeth. "Pay-" she hit him on the head with a wad of parchment once, "-attention!" Then twice.

"I'm trying!" He held his hands up to block the other blows coming for his head. "I'm trying, okay! But we've been at this all day, I'm about as ready as I'm going to be."

All Hermione could feel was the pit of guilt making an appearance back in her stomach, the feeling spreading up into the back of her throat to collide with the fear in her heart on it's way. Severus would tell her to breathe.

_Just breathe…_

"Hermione?"

"Hmm?" Her eyes opened from where they had dropped slightly from concentrating on her breathing, slowing her suddenly racing heart.

His hand covered hers, "You don't have to worry about me, you helped so much already. It's up to me now."

She smiled, squeezing his fingers a bit as she felt her eyes cloud up, "Who else is going to worry about you if not me?"

Ron's eyes narrowed from behind his quidditch magazine, zeroing on their hands in the middle of the papers strewn across the library table.

..

The cheering people in the stands watched as each champion entered the maze, none knowing what would soon take place in a cemetary far from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Hermione was strangely calm as she saw Severus' black figure making it's way out of the stands and into the dark around them.

_It was time..._

Making her way to him while Ron was distracted with talking to Bill, she entered the forbidden forest where he stood with his black eyes tracking each step she made. Waving her wand around her body, her long coat and jeans shift into the black robes of a Death Eater as she grabbed onto Severus' waist, hugging him tightly. She felt as if he knew her heart was beating out of her chest, and he probably did.

His arms come around her shoulders, "Are you sure about this?"

She looked up to the man who had been her whole world for years, and reached up onto her tiptoes. Kissing him lightly on the lips, she felt him respond before she dropped back down, feeling a burning in her stomach and heart that warmed her in the cold air.

"Wherever you go, I go, Severus. We are so far into this anyway, we couldn't leave even if we wanted to."

He looks down to her with eyes that saw through everything within her, and smiled, completely contradictory to the mood they would soon find themselves in. The entwined figures disappear in a cloud of black smoke no one in the cramped stands would notice.

..

Hermione took Tom's hands in hers, smiling at him brightly and completely sane. Although she did not feel as if what they were about to do was very sane. Not at all.

_Breathe…_

"Are you ready to reborn into a healthy man once again, my Lord?" He takes her face in his slightly trembling hands, kissing her softly on the lips as she had done to Severus not minutes ago.

"You will be rewarded for your loyalty, Hermione. You as well Lucius, Severus." He hisses lowly, calling Nagini out into the light of the torches that had been lit around them. Sliding around tombstones, the large snake came to rest beside Hermione, waiting for her part in the ritual to come. Glancing back to an impassive Severus, she helps the Dark Lord in the large cauldron set in the circle of stones where they stood. Her hands shaking as she conjures the skull of his father from where she stood above his grave, she set it upon the crossed arms of the angel holding the scythe where it guarded the Riddle graves.

A thump echoes through Hermione's head as the three followers surrounding their lord conjure the bone masks upon their faces, turning them into harbingers of death in the state of the reaper.

"Grab him," Severus tells Lucius, his deep voice turned even deeper through the protection of the mask.

Two voices came from behind the tall gravestone, and Hermione felt an icy pour down the back of her neck, chilling her to her toes as she stepped closer to Severus. Harry and Cedric Diggory were dragged in front of her and pushed to their knees. She couldn't breathe, but forced herself to raise her Occlumency shields and continue through the ritual numbly, ignoring Harry and Cedric's screams.

"Bone of the father, unknowingly given." Hermione levitated Tom Riddle Sr. bone into the cauldron, "You will renew your son." She turned to Nagini who raised up to Hermione's raised forearm, sinking her teeth in deep as her venom flowed into Hermione's bloodstream. "Blood of the servant, and venom of the familiar willingly combined and given for the resurrection of our master." Her breath became slow as she sliced where Nagini's fangs had sunk into her flesh, allowing the blood to drip onto Tom's head and over his closed eyes. The part she dreaded came to a head as she floated to Severus where he held Harry on his knees, a silencing charm keeping him quiet. "B-blood of the enemy… forcibly taken… you will resurrect your foe." Blood from her best friend's jugular was the last ingredient to be put onto Tom's now sleeping form, the ritual components complete and ready for Severus to begin his healing chant.

..

They stood in the circle of death with death's leader at the center.

_Nothing would be the same after this… not at all..._

Hermione grabbed Severus' hand, shielded by their dark robes and masks. Cedric's lovely eyes stared up at her from where his body lay unmoving at her feet, his heart no longer pumping blood through his body to sustain that smile he always had for her.

_What is to stop him from breaking his promise to me? Will he face me knowing my loyalty would then be in question?_

Tom stood in front of Harry, as naked and handsome as the day he made his first kill. She examined the planes of muscle on his back, the way his physique leanness made his body much like Severus' with his ribs jutting about above the v of his hips that led down to the thin patch of hair around his privates. But something was off in the way his skin had a faint bluish tint in what she could see in the torch's light, and his skin stretched tightly over his skull, giving it the slight appearance of one. His blue veins were full of new healthy blood that pumped his heart, and showed through his arms, chest, and hands. His eyes were changed from the red he had been born with in his previous body, retaining a striking dark blue that seemed as if they could look into your soul, even filled with a bloodlust that sent shivers down her spine. It was all too intoxicating being in the presence of a man with such power, much like how she felt when wrapped around Severus for a time. Although, his had a subtly to it that still did not diminish from the drunkenness that would befall you.

_I know what he is going to do…_

_I always knew..._

Harry sees Hermione's little covered figure glide up to Tom, conjuring a white robe to cover his new body.

"Leave him, my Lord," she whispers in his ear, "The people need a spectacle of it all, but not until you have decided on the right way to announce your arrival. If you take him now, everyone will know you live for sure and have a price on your head once again. Only the people who believe in the word of a teenage boy, like Dumbledore, will believe him as others will simply chalk Cedric's death up to something else. They will be too scared to come out of their denial that the man they fear the most is back among the living."

Harry stares in disbelief as Voldemort backs away from him, barking at the Death Eaters surrounding him to depart.

"We'll see each other again, Harry Potter." The Dark Lord's human eyes gave Harry shivers down his spine, as if a piece of ice had slid down his back and the cold had not dissipated. He disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

The little figure and their companion were the only ones left behind to see the scarred boy stare at them, frozen next to the Wizard's Cup. Hermione walks back to her companion, holding back tears, and wraps herself around him once more.

~.O.~

All Hermione could see was Harry's face, screwed up in that familiar way in the midst of all the yelling going around them. Her hands were still shaking from the adrenaline rush of things happening so fast after her and Severus had come back to the Quidditch field full of still cheering fans. Hermione had looked around her, still feeling numb after pushing back her cry of sadness, and thought of how many people would believe Harry after he came back with Cedric's body.

_Am I a bad person, Severus?_

_No, girl. Out of the two of us, I'm the bad person._

Her best friend's scar bled red, right in the middle of his forehead in the aftermath of Barty Crouch escaping Hogwarts. The Death Eater in disguise having been too excitable in gauging the night's events he had been loose on his Polyjuice swigging, causing him to flee after knocking Harry out with a blow right to his scar before Dumbledore discovered the supposedly dead man within his school. Alastor Moody was then discovered within one of the many trunks left behind.

Standing up from where she had been sitting between Ron and Bill at the foot of his bed, she sat next to him and held her arms out. He didn't hesitate as he wrapped his long skinny body around her as if she could keep all the bad things away from him forever. Everything would be okay as long as he kept his wet face buried in her mass of curls where no one would bother him, because he knew she would protect him from whoever thought to hurt him. Silent tears ran down her cheeks as she held him just as tight as he did her.

_This seems to be the question most asked lately though…_

_What does it mean when it is asked over, and over, and over?_

~.O.~

Rita Skeeter was taken out of her unbreakable jar that girl, and that horrid professor had kept her in. She was dirty, disoriented, and hungry.

_It was supposed to be simple… so simple… in and out..._

She had gotten into Hogwarts before so many times in her animagi form, and out undetected. She never thought it would end up stuck in such a little form, eating leaves, and berries, and other smaller bugs. She lay on a cold, hard surface that soaked into her bones that already ached from being in such a little home for months.

Her eyes were blurry and glued shut, and very hard to open. But she heard a shuffle from somewhere in the room she lay in, and she hoped it wasn't the man or the girl who kept her prisoner. Moaning, she turned onto her back and attempted to open her eyes. Met with bright sunlight piercing her skull, building behind her eye to form a pounding headache. Pushing through the pain, she allowed her eyes to adjust.

A handsome man sat on a dias in front of her disheveled figure. She was in the middle of a magnificent white marble ballroom, laying on the floor in front of an unknown handsome man with no wand.

"Ms. Skeeter," his deep voice echoed lowly throughout the room, bouncing off the marble of everything. He cocked his head to the side as she pushed herself up to a sitting position, looking too much as if he were looking at a bug under a magnifying glass.

The now dirty blonde looked around skittishly, seeing she was alone with the man.

He smiled charmingly, "My name is Marvolo."

Seeing neither of her captors, the woman smiled a small smile back at the overly handsome man with the deep sunken eyes.

_He saved me from those horrible people…_

She took the hand that was offered to her, and tried to smooth down her frizzed hair.

~.O.~

Hermione asked such an innocent question it was childlike and so out of place in the magical world filled with so much good, yet so much bad it balanced itself out.

"Are we safe now?" She asked Severus as she buried her face into his hair just as Harry did to her. She may be Harry's lifeline to his protection, but Severus was, and always would be hers for as long as they lived.

"For now," he said. He held her just as tight as she did him in the garden full of flowers and peacocks white as snow. "We are for now."

Their lips pressed tightly together with such repressed emotion, they said through that one little kiss everything they had felt towards one another since the beginning of the uprising of the Dark Lord earlier in the year.

_Just breathe…_

_I'm here…_


	19. 5th Year Part One

" _Growing up, you would think love is a tangible object, that you can point or touch it. Love is not a tangible thing, it is an aggregation of several things, like caring, assisting, sacrifice, attention, and doing whatever one has to do to protect someone dear."_

_~ Magnus Nwaga Amundi_

~.O.~

"Are you sure you want to do this, girl?" Severus' hand was tangled in her curls massaging her head. Hermione leaned her back against her parent's couch and Severus' side, all without dislodging his hand.

"I'm sure," she whispered, "I will feel better if they were gone and safe rather than here where the Dark Lord can access them if he decides we are no longer useful."

_A flash of green… youthful and smiling grey eyes opened forever, unblinking..._

He kissed her temple, murmming into her ear as they heard footsteps on the stairs, "We don't know when you'll be able to see them again. It could be a year, or it can be five."

She closed her eyes briefly, turning her head into Sev's shoulder as her parents came into view of them. "Let's hope it is not so. Anything short of an Unbreakable Oath from Tom will have my parents gone for longer than that."

Mark and Sheila stopped at the bottom of the stairs, each holding small bags of their own. Hermione stands up after sniffling into Severus' arm once more, and immediately goes to her mother who had clearly been doing the same as her eyes were rimmed with red. Grabbing her around her shoulders, Hermione and Sheila start crying all over again. Mark steps up next to Severus, giving the two women in his life a moment to say goodbye.

Holding out his hand to the other man, he looks him straight in the eye, "Take care of my girl, Severus. Her and Sheila are my life."

Severus looks into the exact replica of Hermione's dark caramel eyes that held the same laughter, shaking the other man's hand.

"Always. _She_ is my whole life."

When the girls finally finished crying on each other, Hermione stands in front of her father for a moment, taking in his large powerful form and his aged face. Her lips start to quiver for what felt like the hundredth time that night as he opens his arms to her, so she grabs him around the waist and squeezes as hard as she can as he kisses the top of her head.

"I'm sorry, Daddy." Her voice quivered from restraining her sobs, the tone of her voice rising and falling with each word. "I'm sorry I brought this onto us."

Pulling back and lifting her chin up to him with his fingers, he said, "Never be sorry for something you can't control, Hermione. Your magic is, and has always been a part of you."

Going up onto her toes, Hermione kisses the corner of her father's mouth and hugs him one last time before doing the same to her mother. Wiping her tears away and going back to Severus' side, she leaned her side against his arm with her hand wrapping around his.

Her mother looks to her daughter and the professor that had watched her all these years, cultivating more than just her intellectual mind. Grabbing her only daughter once more before they left, she whispered in her ear.

"Don't get married without me, love. I would very much like to see you in a white wedding dress."

Blushing in spite of the tears welling up again, Hermione conjured the portkey Severus had made with her new swirly designed untraceable wand Severus had procured for her. Handing it to her parents with trembling fingers, she watched them disappear. Picking up Crookshanks, who had been lounging on the back of the white covered couch, Severus locked the red door behind them as they stepped out onto the sidewalk.

They watched as the two story house disappeared as if it had never existed, and in it's place a vacant grass covered alleyway.

~.O.~

Hermione walked across the cold gold and white tiles of Malfoy Manor towards Lucius' office, the cold seeping through her black socks and freezing her toes as she opened his study door without knocking. The blonde headed man was already in his day robes, although his head lolled back against his favorite sofa as his body lounged about in an uncharacteristic lazy pose. His eyes were closed as Hermione stood over him, admiring his long white eyelashes flutter against his cheek. Bending down, she ran a feathered quill she had nicked off his desk gently down his nose until it twitched.

"Lucius," she whispered, his body was still. "Uncle Lucius..." She giggled quietly as she ran the feather down his nose once again, a small frown forming between his pale brows. "Are you asleep?"

She squeaked out a sudden laugh as she was suddenly dragged on top of him, his hands around her ribs as her laughs rang through the room.

"I was trying to sleep until a little girl's little giggles made their way into my ear." He stopped tickling her, letting her catch her breath as he hugged her to him, "What are you doing in my study, besides ruining my beauty sleep?"

She smiled up at him smaller than before as she traces the dark circle under his eyes, "It's almost time for breakfast. I told Narcissa I would get you and Draco."

He heaved a deep sigh, no doubt knowing the Dark Lord… _Marvolo…_ would be at the breakfast table as he made himself at home more and more lately. With Hermione sitting closest to him. He watched the girl as she rolled off him to her feet, kissing his cheek, and dancing out of the room in search of his son. Finding him still in bed surrounded by darkness, she goes to the drapes and opens them, turning around to see him lying on top his silver covers facedown with only pants to cover for his modesty. And a fluffy yawning Kneazle who thinks humans are more comfortable than beds laying upon his back. Sitting beside his head, she ran a hand down his pale back, that Crookshank'sasn't covering, that told her he must have been lying like that for sometime as it had an overtone of cold, then running over a purring Crookshanks' head and spine who then kneaded biscuits on the boy's shoulders.

"Draco," she said softly, making him finally grunt in acknowledgement. "Look at me."

His green eyes find her, squinting at the bright light behind her that made her glow in a blasphemous mimicry of an angel as she smiled at him while brushing his hair back.

"You need to come down for breakfast."

He sighs and grabs her hand, putting it beneath his cheek and closing his eyes once again, "I don't want to."

"But you have to," she wiggles her fingers on his cheek, tickling his nose with the feather she had brought from Lucius' office to make it wrinkle up like a small boy's. "I know you are afraid of him, but he will not hurt you. He will be doing things differently from the last war, he will not torture people for trifling things."

He looks up at her, relinquishing her hand as he flips over, dislodging Crooks who fled to Hermione's warm lap. "How can you be so sure?"

Her eyes sparkle down to him, "Because I said so, now get dressed. Severus and your parents are probably seated by now."

The men talked of the overthrow of the Ministry as Tom sat at the head of the table, Severus and Lucius both on the either side of him as there were no social niceties to look on in such an informal setting. Hermione then in shoes sat with one leg underneath her, Severus' large hand that was not occupied with his eggs rested on her bare ankle as she ate and talked with Narcissa in front of her next to Lucius. Hermione could still tell Draco was nervous around the man at the head of the table as Tom took a moment from the two other men to talk to them about school, so she put her hand on his leg on the other side of her and squeezed softly. He grabbed two of her fingers and held them under the table for the rest of the meal, her thumb rubbing the smooth cartilage between his thumb and pointer fingers. Severus saw this and mimicked her actions on her ankle, causing her to smile up at him softly.

When it was time for Hermione and Severus to leave for Grimmauld Place to spend the rest of summer there, Tom in all his new handsome face ran his warm fingers down her cheek, so much different from only a few months ago when she had resurrected him cold as a corpse.

"Listen closely and carefully, Hermione. You know what we are looking for."

She turned her cheek into his hand, looking up to him with utter devotion shining in her eyes.

"I will not fail you, My Lord."

"I have no doubt of that."

Her hand reaches out for Severus, and his long fingers grasp hers as they walk through the echoing halls of Malfoy Manor after saying goodbye to their hosts. Watching Severus' blank face, he looks down to her as she wraps an arm around his slim waist, not hiding the myriad of emotions within his eyes. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders in preparation for apparition as she leaned up to the corner of his mouth, wondering how much of a strain and stain this war would leave on their souls and hearts before they were finally able to truly _believe_ they were safe in the world of their own making.

~.O.~

Hermione stared as a somewhat shabby building appeared between numbers ten and thirteen, and Sirius' childhood home of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place looked as if it were in serious need of repairs.

_Or maybe not… since muggles couldn't see it anyway… the inside doesn't look much better..._

Hermione walked down the cobwebbed hallway with bags of cleaning supplies Mrs. Weasley had asked her to get. She hadn't even been settled for a day before she was given something to do, and she was glad to do it. Being as it was, Sirius' house- elf was on strike against the master who had returned home after so long, the one who he considered a blood- traitor and would much more obviously take either of the previous Black sisters as his master at any time. Hermione wasn't complaining about the cleaning though, Severus' home had given her enough experience with which cleaning charms worked and which would just be better not even trying and getting down on her knees into the dust and spiders.

Tripping slightly over the trolls leg umbrella stand as she always did, Hermione glared down at the ugly and offensive thing that seemed to move on it's own, but was adverse to people moving it without it's permission and retaliated with a permanent sticking charm affixing it as a normal item. Half the things in the home were stuck to the walls, tables, and floors of this house, and Hermione vowed under her breath once she figured out how to sever the charm the leg would be the first to go.

Passing several members of the Order, she smiled and said hello as they did the same while Molly took a few of the bags from her and set them in the kitchen. Told to pick a room downstairs to spend her time ridding of years of grim no one knew could build up within layers in a locked up house, that the Black heir and a certain werewolf had been occupying for over a year mind you, Hermione wandered into the Black Family Tapestry room. A large room it was, almost bigger than the living room although the only thing it contained was a large tree with names and pictures as leaves. Tracing around them, Hermione found various names of affluent Death Eater families, Potters, Malfoys, and finally found Sirius' parents. Tracing a detailed vine to the name beside where Sirius' blackened picture used to be, she traced the jawline of his brother's sharp jawline they both seemed to have inherited from their mother.

Hearing a rustle behind her, she continues to trace along the lines while waiting for the man to whom the sound was attributed to to speak before glancing over her shoulder to see him leaning against the doorframe with his head cocked to the side studying her. He says nothing for a while, so Hermione decides to break the silence herself as she stops at two names of an incomplete family with one child.

Twirling her fingers around the blackened name as she comments to Sirius, "He was very handsome, your brother."

"He was." He pauses for another long moment.

She turns back towards him, "Do you miss him?"

Crossing his arms as he looks down to his feet for a moment, the grey eyes that meet her's once again speaks of a deep regretful sadness, "Sometimes. He joined the Death Eaters, and went missing shortly after graduating from Hogwarts."

"Do you ever wonder what happened to him?"

"I always wonder, it's just hard to pick just one idea and stick to it. Sometimes, I just don't want to know."

They were quiet for a few more moments while Hermione silently debated on rather or not to ask to do something he may not approve of. She decided there was no harm either way, but she had no idea of what Severus' reaction would be to it.

Sirius watched as her finger traced around a Prince name with a burn mark below it, puzzled as to why before she asked, "Do you mind if I add a name to your tree? It doesn't seem to be complete."

He walks to stand beside her silently, all the while watching her delicate little fingers dance upon his family's tapestry over a many times over cousin's small branch.

_Alexandre Prince… Eleanor Prince… Eileen Prince… the last blacked out much like his…_

He chuckled slightly, "Do you know something I don't know?"

She smiled pointy toothed at him, "I know a few things you don't, Sirius. Do you mind if one is a muggle?"

He waved a hand towards the wall, indicating he could care less. Watching as she bent down to aim her wand towards the branch extending from the blackened portrait, Eileen Prince was connected with Tobias .… Snape… a branch slowly extending below them indicating that their child was to be named…

_Severus. T. Snape…_

Hermione stood back up, running her fingers over the dry ink that had formed Severus' picture through magic of marriage connections. It seemed as if all one had to do was add a name and the familial bonds would do the rest.

_Neat..._

Hermione smiled once again at him sharkily, his face felt frozen as he stared at the man's aquiline nosed portrait.

"Did I know something you didn't?"

~.O.~

" _You will see if they follow through," Tom tells her, "They are notorious for being hungry waifs, watch and see if they have restraint. Unlike when they were charged with finding the Black heir, the son of Orion and Walburga." He looks away from her to the window, "Brother of the traitor, Regulus."_

_Hermione watches as the frost fades from the window panes as the Dementors flew away into a darkening sky, raindrops pattering softly on the glass._

" _As you command, my Lord."_

Hermione kisses Severus on the cheek as she lets go of his hand on the sidewalk of Little Whinging. After looking at the white one story house marked by the rather dead grass in the dead of summer, he sniffs and disapparates only once Hermione rings the doorbell after smoothing down her thin white sundress. Concealing underneath it tied to her thigh her wand snug inside a holster. He had no reason or need to see Lily's sister anytime soon.

Petunia Dursley had not gotten much prettier since Hermione had last seen her only a few years previous, neither Vernon Dursley much thinner. The woman was all smiles as she opened the door, apparently not recognizing Harry's best friend from the brief glimpses she had gotten of the witch on Platform 9 and quarters while dragging Harry away as fast as possible.

"Can I help you?" The woman wore a horrid navy dress with large white flowers tied with thick straps around her neck, not helping the sight of her sagging breasts in the least.

Hermione smiled back to the woman charmingly, "Yes, I was wondering if Harry was here? I'm not sure you remember me Mrs. Dursley, I'm Hermione Granger, Harry's friend from school?" The girl watched as the woman took a step back and Harry's uncle heaved himself up from in front of the TV to stand behind his wife.

"What do you want with the boy?" He asked her gruffly, any pretence of manners gone when coming to face a person of magical being. His mustache wiggled, showing his agitation.

Hermione did not lose her courtesy, although her smile did grow somewhat colder, "I just thought I would come by to check in, I have been busy helping my parents prepare for a long vacation abroad and have not had the time to owl lately. And it seems as if your son failed to give Harry my telephone messages, telling him to call me back."

"He is not here," Petunia said, narrowing her eyes at the vaguely familiar girl while ignoring the slight upon her son.. "Are you not the girl with the parents as dentists?"

"I am."

"How can they allow you to consort with those people? They are what got my sister killed."

Hermione thought this was a somewhat random question but answered nonetheless, her face lost the smile and turned to a mimicking of Severus' as she stepped closer to the doorway. "Lily and James died by the hand of a man who sought to kill your only nephew." Hermione cocked her head to the side like Crookshanks does when he finds something questionable, "You would think you would treat the only peace of the sister you had left with love, you had to have loved her once since you kept him with you instead of sticking him in an orphanage." Petunia's face turned white as Vernon's did the opposite, placing a hand on her shoulder as he opened his mouth. "I hope you have a wonderful day, I can find Harry on my own." She did not bother saying anything about the slight to wizarding kind being referred to as 'those people' as she turned to walk back down the sidewalk, tired of these uppity people whom Harry had been stuck with all these years.

She paused though as she looked back and saw them staring after her, "By the way, Severus Snape says hello." She smiled widely at their shocked and confused faces, humming under her breath as her strappy sandals hit the pavement with sharp taps.

..

She finds him swinging slightly on a child's playground a mile away from his neighborhood, his back facing her as he scuffs his foot along the dry dirt. She was already sweating in this heat and wished she had brought some sunglasses as she rolled the roundabout wheel, causing it to squeak as Harry's head came up sharply, not having expected to see anyone in the heat of the day under no trees. His eyes are filled with surprise as he looks at his best friend walking towards him in her little white dress, smiling widely at his expression.

"Hermione!" He jumps off the swing and runs towards her in the little space they had between them, catching her around the waist and lifting her off her feet. "What are you doing here?"

She laughed in his ear as he spun her around, squeezing his neck tightly once more before he set her back on her feet. Pushing back her damp hair from her forehead she walked with him back towards the swing.

"I missed you," she reaches out for his hand and lets it dangle between them, "And I wanted to see how you were doing. I haven't heard from you all summer."

His eyes lose some of it's temporary shine, but he doesn't let go of her hand even as he answers. "You didn't seem that interested with the lack of owls I've gotten from you and Ron." He avoids the undertone of the question, knowing she was asking about Cedric's death, but she wouldn't let him off the hook for long.

Hermione digs her nails into the side of his palm, "Dumbledore gave us orders to not contact you after I had sent your first few owls, and when I called the telephone your cousin would always say you were out." He looks up from where he had been pouting towards the ground, his brow furrowed. "I think he believes you need to work things out on your own, but I disagree with him."

He smiled slightly at her characteristic _Hermione knows best, so I will do what I think is best so deal with it_ attitude. "Is that why you are here then? Because you worry too much? Don't think I can handle it on my own?" He didn't know what to think of the Headmaster at the moment, for years Hermione had been telling him that certain things the older wizard did made not a lick of sense. He was starting to see that now, even if he continued to acknowledge that he was a very powerful and intelligent man that he admired.

"I always worry about you, Harry. I love you more than anyone else loves you in this world, and no one will keep me from my brother after he has gone through something like you did only a few months ago."

_A flash of green… grey eyes blinking no longer… smile gone from the world…_

Harry flushed in the heat, his eyes watering just a bit. Here was this girl that he had met only a few years ago who has shown him much more love than any of his supposed family had in fifteen.

"I love you too," he squeezes her hand even more tightly as he hesitates, cutting off a bit of circulation until it went numb. "I keep dreaming. About that night."

She listened to him take a deep breath, he hadn't told anyone details about the night the Dark Lord was resurrected other than Dumbledore, and she had a feeling he was about to finally open up to her, hoping that maybe it would help him enough with the night terrors. They were interrupted though by a large boy coming across the field in front of the playground, a group of laughing teens following behind. The leader had an unattractive sneer on his face, and Hermione just knew it was Harry's cousin, Dudley.

"Who is this, Potter?" He eyed her up and down, from her loose strappy sandals to her low neckline. "You're girlfriend? Not like you could get one anyway." The boys around him snickered, pushing each other around.

Hermione watched as Harry's face closed up once again, morphing into annoyance and sighed, knowing it was going to be hard to get him to talk open up once again. They both stood up as she let go of Harry's hand, but stepped closer to him.

"I'm Hermione Granger. A friend of Harry's from school, you must be his cousin?" She cocked her head from the side, recognizing his voice from her phone calls, all the while trying to resist laughing at the scared look on his face that he hadn't covered up quickly enough with another ugly sneer.

He took a step backward, his friends looking at him confused as the boy saw Hermione's hands idly twist a stick in her fingers, now scanning him up and down. The mouse recognized the prey, and kept up it's megre shackles.

"Lets go, they're not worth messing with. I'm-" Dudley abruptly broke off as the skies thundered above them, dark storm clouds rolling across the sun as the temperature dropped dramatically. Goose bumps appeared on Hermione's arms and legs as Dudley looked wildly back to her wand then her face, soundly slightly hysterical as he backed up more. "We're leaving! We're leaving, stop!" The other boys he came with fled in opposite directions, supposedly home as rain started pouring down and black figures came along.

Hermione grabbed Harry's hand, pulling him as she began to see her breath float in front of her. "Get back to the house! Now!" She grabs Dudley's shoulder as he also begins to shiver, not bothering to snap at her for deigning to touch him as they all start running back towards the Little Whinging suburbs.

They were cornered at last in a long dark car tunnel, frost spreading across the walls as Hermione ran her fingers across the wand on her thigh for reassurance, then her flowered one disillusioned upon her arm. Hermione hated the feeling of Dementors even being in the near vicinity of you, feeling as if all the warmth and happiness bled from your pores. One went after Harry first, but it seemed as if it had brought a friend along that then went for a wholly confused Dudley that, as a muggle, could see nothing of what was going on right in front of him. All he saw was Harry pinned to the wall, seemingly being held up by an invisible force, until he was knocked to the ground and he got a brief glimpse of a dark wraith as all the happiness of the past was sucked and drained away from him.

Waiting just long enough to see that the Dementors had no intentions of stopping, despite strict orders, she conjured her Patronus with her swirled and slightly crooked wand. Watching as her fox gave a roar surprisingly loud for it's body, and chased away the awful incarnations of Death, right over the head of a slight, older woman with a rain cap over her hair standing at the entrance to the tunnel.

"What's going to happen to you, Hermione? They will know it was your wand that cast the Patronus." He had asked her as they picked up Dudley and slowly made their way back to his aunt and uncle's home, Hermione being much shorter than his cousin it was made even slower as he was only half conscious and completely loopy.

"Nothing will happen, Harry. Don't you worry your pretty little head about it. And don't worry about the Dementors, I don't think they will try to come after you again."

"Why did they come after me in the first place? The Ministry is supposed to hold them to Azkaban."

It was dark by the time they walked up the short sidewalk, and all Hermione said was, "The Ministry doesn't control everything, love. You should know that by now."

Petunia and Vernon started shrieking at Harry as soon as they walked in with their grey faced boy, turning their ire to Hermione when she brought out her wand.

Vernon stepped in front of Dudley, "You are NOT using that unnaturalness on my boy, not after what you lot has already done to him!"

Hermione gritted her teeth and glanced to Harry who was staring at her wand, confusion written all over his face and she knew she would have to explain.

"Do you want your son better or not? I doubt they could make him feel better faster than I can."

Petunia pulled her husband out of the way with a distasteful expression, losing it to a slight awe when she saw the light blue mist come from the girl's wand. She waved it in a slow circle and a beautiful and regal looking fox materialized, jumping playfully around her shoulders before nuzzling her cheek affectionately.

Hermione smiled slightly, touching noses with her fox and giving it her instructions before it went to sprint around Dudley and then out the window after the boy gained some color and coherency. She told Petunia to get him chocolate to make up for the shock.

"That's not your wand, where did you get it?" Harry pulled her aside as Vernon fussed around his son. "Is that why you aren't worried about the trace?"

Hermione sighed, slipping it back into her thigh holster, making Harry raise his eyebrows at her position of choice. "Yes it's why I'm not worried, and it's a precaution for things like this." She evaded the question as to where she had procured it, gesturing to his cousin as she answered the second part. "Someone has to be able to access their magic while keeping us alive during all the messes we put ourselves into."

He narrowed his eyes at her, opening his mouth just as the doorbell rang.

Petunia opened the door as she came back into the living room, "I said don't worry, love. I've got it handled." She put her hand on his cheek as Harry's aunt stood gasping at the man in her doorway.

Severus Snape, a boy the Petunia Dursley hadn't seen since she had been Petunia Evans, stood in front of her looking much the same as he had more than fifteen years ago. She backed up as he let himself into her home, nodding his head to her with a bit of a sneer that hadn't changed much, "Hello, Tuny." The man went to stand next to Harry's little girl friend that had healed her son, and who had told her and Vernon a hard truth only hours ago.

"Severus!"

"Snape," Harry said, taking a step forward. "Professor Snape." He corrected himself as Hermione pinched him. He wanted to know why his Potions Professor always seemed to be somewhere near Hermione when they were not in school, not many people noticed, but he had. He never asked Hermione, not knowing if he wanted to know the answer she would give him.

Vernon grew pale at the new man in the house, not having seen him in as many years as Petunia had. He was taller than Harry's uncle, and even taller than the girl who smiled up at him at his side. His hair had grown to just settling upon his shoulders, although it did look less greasy than it had when he was a teen. The sneer that had seemed a permanent fixture on his face seemed to have dropped as he looked down to the curly haired girl of Harry's. The frock coat he wore only made him that much more intimidating.

"Snape," he said, his voice sounding gruffer than usual, his hand on his son's slightly swaying shoulder. "What are you doing in my house?" His natural caustic nature seemed to have deflated significantly at the man's presence. Dudley moaned.

Severus raised an intimidating eyebrow, causing a little giggle to escape Hermione. He had told her long ago that he never cared for the overweight man that Petunia had married, turning the girl even more against her sister than she already was.

"I have come to pick up the girl," his hand twitched minutely between the small space by their arms, telling Hermione he wanted to reach out to her. She wrapped her pinky around his and felt him relax a small bit in as he talked to the muggles he hadn't seen for years. He turned his head to Harry, "And to tell Potter that someone will pick him up in a few days."

Harry nodded, and hugged Hermione who stood on her toes to wrap her arms around his neck. He watched the adults in the room stare at each other. Hermione kissed his cheek and told him to try and stay out of trouble for the few hours she would be away from him.

"You are a teacher now, Severus?" Petunia took a hesitant step forward, wanting for an unknown reason to delay the last time she would likely see the last person who had known her sister alive.

"Yes," he drawled as Hermione took her place beside him once more. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, wanting to get out of these muggle's cozy little house that no doubt witnesses even a modicum of what he had as a child. "Good day, Tuny, Vernon." He nodded to them swiftly, looking down to Hermione in silent question who nodded. They turned sharply to the left, and disappeared from the Dursleys living room.

Petunia frowned, standing somewhat in shock at the scene she had just witnessed. Severus Snape, she knew, had no other friends than her own sister, and she knew he had looked at her in a loving way that could only come from her affectionate sister clinging to the only piece of the magic world she had in a muggle neighborhood. That same look was mirrored towards the obviously much younger girl that was friends with her nephew, a nephew that seemed to think that a teacher holding his best friend in the way that he had was no surprise.

Harry took the chocolate bar out of Petunia's nerveless fingers as Dudley started hyperventilating, breaking off a piece for his own pale face before shoving the rest in his cousin's mouth.


	20. 5th Year Part Two

" _Just because you bury something doesn't mean it stops existing. Those feelings, they've been there all along. I just had to face it. He was part of my DNA."_

~.O.~

"I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore." Hermione looked suitably chastened when the Headmaster was finished scolding her for going to Little Whinging when he had expressly forbidden anyone being in contact with Harry.

_Little liar…_

After all summer he had kept them apart from Harry, or told them to stay away at the very least, but the fact of the matter was all dependent if they listened to him or not. Like Ron did. She just chose to be a good friend and not leave him to deal with Cedric's death alone, granted she had a means to get to him through the muggle world in the first place.

"How did you get rid of the Dementors Miss. Granger?" His blue eyes were darker than they usually were, the twinkle not at all present. "You have not received an expulsion notice as of yet."

"I doubt I will be getting one anytime soon, sir." She said, face blank, "At least I was there when they came for Harry, or else he would be getting a notice. Wouldn't that have caused more problems than necessary? Besides, due to my Time- Turner use in third year, I have just turned of age and the Trae has been lifted from my wand."

He said nothing, glancing only to where her flowered wand was disillusioned and strapped to her forearm. "Good day, Miss. Granger."

She smiled charmingly, "Good day, Headmaster."

..

Harry ranted about not being in the loop as he waves the Daily Prophet featuring him and Dumbledore under the word _LIES or TRUTHS?_ around, not even jumping as Fred and George apparated on either side of him as everyone else had the first time they had appeared near them. Hermione was beginning to get a pounding headache at his yelling that had been going on for twenty minutes. Ron sat on the other side of the bed from her and, in vain, tried to dispel the other boy's unnecessary anger but was having great difficulty. He only took a break to catch his breath once as Ginny came in and informed them she couldn't eavesdrop on the Order meeting, dropping in between the twins as they each wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

Harry opens his mouth to start up once again at Hermione this time as he looked to her, but she had enough with the pounding in her head.

"Enough," she said, knowing he was going to say something about her not telling him anything while she was in Little Whinging. She put her fingers in either side of her nose, and everyone blinked at how much she looked like Snape in that moment. "As I'm sure you remember, we didn't have much time to talk when I came to visit, Harry."

Harry looked suitably put down, finally taking a seat next to Hermione and resting his head in her lap as Ron then asked, "When did you go and see him? Dumbledore told us not to. I didn't get to see him."

"A few days ago," Hermione threaded her fingers through his already messy hair, watching in her peripheral as Ginny's face became shadowed slightly by jealousy at her easy touch of the boy, "I didn't plan on it, Ron, and Dumbledore never would have known if the Dementors hadn't of shown up."

"You went against Dumbledore's orders," Ron looked aghast and was starting to sound like his mother who thought the Headmaster had hung the moon and stars.

" _Our little-"_

" _\- rule breaker_." The twins grinned at her from their corner.

Ginny looked at her with a confused expression, a frown appearing, "But how did you banish them? You couldn't have used your wand, the trace is still on it."

Hermione sighed as Harry murmured, "The question of the week." She yanked on the hair she still had a hold of, ignoring his yelp.

They would find out eventually from Harry, so she lifted her dress to the side, causing eyebrows to raise and Ron's ears to turn red. She lay her swirled wand in the middle of the bed.

" _That's not your-"_

" _-normal wand. Why didn't- "_

" _-we think of that?"_

Hermione grinned at Fred and George's large smiles, "Because it is extremely difficult to procure a second wand that is a good fit for you."

Ginny's eyes lit up as she saw the untraceable wand, previous jealousy forgotten, "Where did you get it?"

Hermione was saved from answering by the door swinging open, causing everyone to jump as their black clad Professor was revealed on the other side. He eyed everyone, then the wand on the bed in which Hermione casually grabbed and holstered, and finally to the boy in her lap who eyed him back. She met his black eyes with a raised eyebrow, "I would like you in the lab, Miss Granger."

She nodded and he swept back down the hall, leaving the door open wide. Ron scowls, "You spent all summer locked up in the Potions lab with that git, why does he have to keep you in there days before school?"

Hermione grinned a little bit, her curls hiding it as she looked down. Ginny puts on a mock concerned look, "He's not doing anything untoward is he, love? Blink three times if he is."

Ron and the twins all gag at the same time as the girls laugh, but neither of them see Harry looking up to see Hermione's reaction. She slides out from underneath him while tucking a pillow beneath his head, smoothing down her dress as she stands.

"Well then, I'm off to get ravaged on top the potion ingredients, so try not to get into trouble while I'm gone." She said to the disgust of all the boys, Ginny looking far too happy with herself as Hermione that the gods the topic of her wand had been discarded.

"Wait, she was joking, right? Hermione!" Ron yelled at her with a disgusted expression marring his handsome face as she closed the door, a grin upon her face.

"You _weren't_ joking were you?" A voice came up behind her, the owner's large hands grabbing her around the waist to pull her to his chest.

Hermione continued walking to the door at the end of the hall, holding onto the hands resting on her stomach. Pausing just long enough to throw a familiar smirk at Severus, "Of course I was."

She squealed slightly as he tickled her ribs and nipped at her neck before slamming the door behind them.

~.O.~

_The ballroom was a sea of black, filled with Death Eaters ready for the new Marking ceremony._

" _The Ministry will need to be ours," Tom had said to Hermione and his two lutienents, taking a sip of his drink. "They will make things much more difficult once they know I am alive unless we begin to act now."_

_Dolores Umbridge stepped up, shaking in front of the Dark Lord as she uncovered her left forearm and baring it to the man who touched it gently with his wand. Hermione was at least glad the foul woman would have some of the pain she had inflicted upon others directed towards her, if any of the rumors were true. Hermione's eyes focused on the pink beads at her wrist, sneering at them slightly._

" _Umbridge is a liability," she had told him once he brought up her name, "She is very outspoken on her views towards half- bloods, and muggle- borns. She has made several laws trying to ban werewolves from Britain, our allies, my Lord!"_

_Tom had only tugged on one of her curls with an indulgent smile, "Yes she is love and she has, but if the Aurors were to open their eyes to a mole in their midst, she would be the scapegoat. She will also be your new defense professor this year the Minister has decided, so you will have to learn to tolerate her for the time being."_

_She grumbled, "I don't want to speak to her outside of class." She was amazed sometimes at how much she could get away with talking to this evil man, and he only laughed at the girl who brought him back to life._

" _As you wish," was his answer, then it was onto the business of a new Minister when the time came._

_She screamed when the mark was seared into her flesh, the snake slowly taking form into the skull._

" _When will you give me my mark, my lord?" Hermione's eyes flicked to Severus before they went back to Tom._

" _Soon, when the time is right."_

~.O.~

The inhabitants of Grimmauld Place continued to wage war on the house, and in that process Hermione found a very interesting piece of jewelry. Sirius had thrown it into the pile of things he no longer wanted, but something of an aura surrounded it that Hermione had become accustomed to.

Levitating it from where it was buried from beneath Walburga Black's tangle of necklaces, she was given a vicious look from Kreacher that she ignored. The golden locket was a gaudy thing with it's green enlaid 'S' right in the center, and it's clasp would not become undone. After casting diagnostic spells for curses she grabbed it out of the air, and it seemed the longer she held the large locket, a whispering went through her head that sounded like nothing at all and yet something.

"Sirius? Do you mind if I keep this?"

He took it from her, casting the same spells and shrugs as he gave it back to her, "Might as well, going to get thrown out anyway."

Looping it around her neck to show to Severus later, she continued stunning doxies whenever someone would open a dark drawer.

..

A black clad man stood in front of the kitchen sink, staring out into the darkness of night. Slipping her arms around his lean waist, Hermione rests her cheek on his back and feels it rumble as he says hello.

"You haven't been in all day, I missed you. Now it's the middle of the night, and you didn't even feel the need to come see me." She tickled him on his surprisingly sensitive ribcage, her hands then going up to his neck to undo the snake embossed buttons that he had already started on.

She feels his snort vibrate her cheek, "You didn't give me a chance to."

They continued to stand that way until Hermione finished with his buttons all the way down to the bottom of his frock, her hands splaying on his stomach where she could feel his warmth through the thin shirt. "What is Dumbledore doing, Severus? Harry is getting upset, he thinks he is ignoring him."

"He doesn't tell me everything, girl. He barely trusts me with the information I pull out of him now." He turns around, putting the wand he had apparently been holding down on the dining table. Wrapping her arms around his neck after he lifts her up to the counter in front of him, his arms taking their place around her waist. "He suspects something between us."

Hermione took a moment of silence, asking a question she very well knew the answer to, "Do you trust him?"

His eyes glitter in the little light from the moon outside the window behind her, he pushes back one of her curls from her forehead, "The only one I trust in this madness we live in, is you."

She smiles cheekily at him, showing her fangs, "Is that so?"

He growls lightly, his lips bruising her's as they laugh into one another's mouths and their hands go into each other's hair. The golden locket sitting quietly in Hermione's beaded bag goes forgotten until the time comes for it to begin whispering it's _seductiveness_ once more.

~.O.~

Hermione ran her thumb over the P embossed upon her red and gold prefects badge that had come with her new class schedule, looking at Harry. He didn't show anything on his face as the twins teased Ron about his new status, only looking on with an overly polite expression.

_Dumbledore is trying to seperate us even more from Harry..._

Wrapping an arm around the dark headed boy, he wraps an arm around her shoulders in response as they hear music start downstairs for the party Mrs. Weasley had put together.

"Are you alright Harry?" she squeezes his side.

He smiles down at her weakly, kissing her temple, "I'm fine, 'Mione."

She looks back at him worriedly as she is pulled into a hug by a crying Molly, telling her how proud she was of her and her youngest son. Harry goes on to talk to Remus and Kingsley at the edge of the living room. Mingling around for an hour or so, studying all the Order members who were gathered, she deigns to see Severus who had been cooped up in his room all day.

Harry had perked up much after talking to Remus and Sirius about his father, so she gave Crookshanks her attention as she stood with their little group. Picking up the cat who had been circling her legs as she listened to their conversation.

She kissed his furry head before holding out her badge to him, "Watch over Mummy's badge, Crooks." She kissed him once more between the ears before letting him down to trot about the house, showing off his pilfered goods.

The boys, who she hadn't noticed watching her and her familiar, all stared at her as she watched him walk through the crowd, making sure he wouldn't get stepped on. Blushing as she finally did, they all grinned at her, "What?"

Remus pulled her to his side, "Do you think that's a good idea, Hermione? Giving your cat your badge?"

She pinched his side smiling brilliantly, hugging him briefly before letting go, "Of course it's a good idea, Remus. He'll give it back."

Although Severus still did not particularly like what was left of the men who had called themselves the Marauders, he had found a certain calm and indirect form of loathing within him as he eventually had to come to terms that Remus at least was not the same man he was during their school years. Sirius though, was something altogether different as he seemed to find interest in Hermione and Severus whenever they were within the same room together. Severus continued to steadfastly ignore the animagus who at times did try his best to push all of Severus' snake embossed nerve buttons.

Escaping up the stairs to find Sev, a knocking inside an open doorway draws Hermione's attention. A dark mahogany dresser was rocking from side to side, something inside of it trying it's best to get out of the finely made cage. Going against her quietly disagreeing conscience, she pulled it open, only to find a boggart materialized in front of her as she backed out of the room once she saw which shape it had decided was the most fitting for tormenting her with.

It seemed confused at first, switching between person shapes, but eventually settled on one the longest. Severus stood in front of her, in his thin unbuttoned shirtsleeves, his Dark Mark writhing on his arm as Hermione's eyes were glued to his face. His skin was a dusky grey, as if soot had been blown everywhere there was taunt skin. As if all the blood had been drained from him, causing his skin to grow leathery and tight against his bones much like what an inferni must look like, giving him the appearance of a walking skeleton with pale lips and colorless cloudy eyes.

She stepped back from the mirage with her wand raised, but she was paralyzed as he backed her against a wall, his face coming within an inch of her own. He smiled cruelly, made even more grotesque by the Boggart's chosen death like facade. His skeletal hand raised, mimicking Severus' actions from days ago by sliding one of her curls behind one ear. Hermione squeezed her eyes shut, tears sliding from underneath her lids as he whispered in her ear.

"It's all your fault," his breath slid across her neck like a frigid wind, causing chills to rack her body along with her suppressed sobs. "You let this happen. You let the Dark Lord drain me of my life, just as you are doing to your _best- friend._ " His lips twisted into a seer, not that Hermione saw. "You brought him back, you signed my life back to him just as you are doing to your _precious_ Potter."

She falls to the ground, a loud thump sounding through the hallway. Her hand covers her mouth to suppress the sobs, not doing anything to block the whimpers that escaped as he continues to say the same words in her ear. Over and over, again and again. Her wand lays abandoned next to her on the floor until finally, his words stop, but she does not open her eyes as it is banished.

Large familiar hands pick her up slightly, placing her in his lap as he strokes her hair to calm her. She wraps her arms around his neck, burying her head in his hair as her sobs subside with his platitudes whispering so much different than his dead copy. As several footsteps sounded on the stairs, male voices echoing just around the corner, Severus slid Hermione to the floor beside him instead of draped over him.

Harry had seen many strange things concerning his friend, but the scene that greeted him, his godfather, Remus, and Moody on their way to banish a trapped Boggart had to be put at the top of the list. Severus Snape was sitting on the floor with his back to the wall. The Potions Professor was practically laying on the _floor,_ with a curly haired girl curled up into his side in front of an open door. Hermione was curled into their Professor's side with his arm around her shoulder. Comforting her. The man who had made over fifteen years worth of whole Potions classes cringe, and cry, was comforting a girl who was best friends with the boy who he seemed full of contempt for.

"Hermione?" he whispered, not exactly comprehending what was going on in front of him. Based on the silence behind him, neither did the other three men.

"Snape!" Barked Moody, his wand held in his right hand with Sirius right behind him, walking towards the couple who stood. Snape's hand going down to help the smaller girl up. Harry's heart twinged as she looked at him with wet red eyes, a trembling smile on her lips. "What is the meaning of this?"

"The boggart is gone now," she said softly, wiping the tear tracks from her cheeks. "You can tell Molly we took care of it." She didn't make any more sound as she walks up to Harry, squeezing him tightly, then grabs Severus' hand and pulls him back towards his room.

No one says a word as they walk back down the stairs.


	21. 5th Year Part Three

_"Don't judge someone based on their appearance. Looks can be deceiving."_

~.O.~

Harry studied Hermione as he lounged across from her in the Black Family Library, leaning longways across the couch as he tilted his head towards her as his hands rested on his stomach. She had been quiet all morning as she sat on the faded red love seat, a forgotten book laying in her lap as she rested her chin on her palm looking out towards the window, unseeing.

"Hermione," he said, shattering the silence that had filled the room once Hermione had sat in her chair that morning. No one knew exactly what had happened with the Boggart the night before, only that they had found her after it had already been banished, and no one had been able to get her to talk about it all day. In normal circumstances on the best days Harry couldn't figure out what his best- friend was thinking, and now it was like an impenetrable bubble surrounded her. Only Snape seemed to know what she was thinking, giving her a cup of tea after preparing it _just how she liked_ during breakfast that prompted the only tiny small she had given since the incident. Pulling himself up as she continued to look out to nothing at all, he took the short detour around the stout table to sit beside her. "Hermione," she jerked violently as he placed his hand around her wrist, the book balancing precariously on her knees falling to the ground.

Her eyes seemed to glow slightly with her sadness, tears seeming to grow the longer he looked to her. " _Oh, Harry,"_ her voice was faint as she put a hand on his cheek.

" _I'm so sorry..."_

Confusion simply filled him, not knowing when she ever would have cause to have so much sorrow towards him. Grabbing her, his hand curled in her hair he pulled her to him as she started sobbing. Her arms wrapped around his waist so tightly he felt as if an anvil had settled on his chest, not knowing how to make her feel better.

"What did you see, Hermione?" He asked once she calmed, but they maintained their positions.

She was quiet so long he thought she wasn't going to answer, but finally she sniffled. "If you ever find out what I have done in this war, Harry, or whatever I will do... Promise me you won't hate me?"

Her words caused a peculiar chill to go through his body, but he squeezed her tighter, not knowing anything the bookish girl could ever do to warrant the hatred he couldn't even muster up for his Aunt and Uncle who had abused him for years.

"I promise, Hermione."

~.O.~

Their mouths were hot against one another's, hands tight and roaming along the other's body. Hermione and Severus clung to each other the same as they clung to the fantasy that they could stay in this state forever, but reality crashed into them once more with a bang and a familiar shriek that would make a dog cower. Breaking apart Hermione laughed at his disgruntled look, made even more comical by his appearance that she had an influence in. Looking less than pristine or severe, her gripping hands had frizzed and tangled his hair as her lip gloss smeared all around his lower face. Laughing slightly before kissing his jaw, she swiped under her own lip to wipe away the excess gloss and doing the same to him before stepping back from him after pecking him once more on the lips.

"Look in the mirror before you apparate to Hogwarts," she told him smirking, straightening his robes slightly, "You go in looking like that and people might start thinking you're a human being with _needs._ "

He gives her his rare rakish smirk that made him look so much younger than his still young years, quickly grabbing her hips in that certain way she had always liked. Her head filled with the memory of the first time he had grabbed her just lightly while in front of the people within Grimmauld Place. Covered by their robes, she had stood just in front of him right in an Order meeting while he waited for his turn to speak on the movements of the Dark Lord, his role as spy having finally been revealed. As Dumbledore turned towards him with a nod, Severus swiftly reached down to squeeze the place just right _there_ in the middle of her hip, his long fingers reaching far into her pubic bone. She had gasped loud before she schooled her face, ignoring Ron's confused look out of the corner of her eye.

Scooping up Crookshanks who had been laying on Severus' bed, she escaped out the door into the hallway. Harry glancing long at her own slightly disheveled state in question as Hedwig flies above their heads to land on his shoulder.

_She was coming out of Snape's room… smiling… this was happening all together too much..._

~.O.~

"Keep that bloody cat away from me, 'Mione!" Ron stormed off after flinching away from Crooks' outstretched claws, his furry hands still reaching out towards the redhead's back as he hurried down the train to catch up with Harry scolds her familiar, but the effectiveness was somewhat lost with her mouth twisted into a large smile that showed off her fangs to his squashed face. As he reached up to paw at her nose, she grabbed it and kissed his heart shaped pad.

Draco came up behind her as the rest of the prefects departed from their meeting to find their friends in the other cars, "Do you have a problem being on patrol with a _bloody Slytherin_ as Weasley calls me?" His white teeth almost dazzle her with their brightness, his time away from the stress of the Dark Lord's presence already doing wonders for his complexion.

Laughing up at him as he scratches Crookshanks under the chin, she reaches back to pat him on his pale cheek. "Oh, darling, I'm not worried. You ever do anything untoward, I'll just tell Severus. "

Leaving him to look properly horrified, she walks away whispering to her familiar as he sputters inelegantly. Exactly how a Malfoy should not act.

_Lucius would get The Look if he saw his son acting in such a way…_

Hermione shudders to herself as she slides open the car that houses her friends, taking a seat in between Harry and a pale blond girl with long golden hair curly as her own that looked as if she could be Draco's younger sister. She held a copy of an upside down magazine called the Quibbler in front of her face. Crookshanks squirming in her lap, Ginny introduces the girl as Luna who brings down her reading and smiles dreamily at Hermione when her familiar finally breaks free to prance right into the girls own lap.

His mistress scowls faintly, apologizing to Luna but leaves him where he is. The other girl rubbing him under his chin, smiling as he fills the car with his purrs.

..

The Thestrals pulling the carriages had a dark sort of beauty, Hermione thought as their hooves trod with soft thumps on the soft earth towards the castle, sort of like Severus. With a horse- like sense of majestic pride in the way they held their powerful bodies and heads, their delicate but strong wings were held close to their skeletal bodies to avoid the sensitive cartilage from being stepped on by unsuspecting teenagers. Harry asked across from her what the creatures were with a pale face, Luna answering before Hermione could pull herself out of her thoughts.

_Hermione not too long ago told Draco that the Dark Lord would no longer use the means of torture to achieve his aims, but does not killing the son of living parents constitute torture? Although Tom had explained away Cedric's death once she expressed her disconcern, her very high level of disconcert, as the high of the moment having been resurrected, Hermione saw a brief glimpse of something within his eye._

_She had closed her eyes as he kissed her forehead, and wondered at her complacent and hopeful optimism, her belief in the man's hopefully changing ways, even as he contradicted her._

_A flash of green… grey eyes closed for eternity evermore… a father's screams… smile gone from the world… would it end with caramel eyes forever closed… with dark bottomless eyes staring in an unblinking gaze, never to love her with sparkling and lively mischief again?_

_A pair of green eyes sheltered behind round glasses…?_

Feeling a small hand grab hers, Hermione looked to Luna as she slid a bottle cap charm bracelet below the silver one holding her charms onto her wrist. Smiling at the darker witch's confusion, Luna told her in explanation, "Your aura is dark, Hermione. This will help keep away the Wrackspurts from making it worse."

Hermione laughed, grateful to have been pulled from her dark thoughts, "What is a Wrackspurt, Luna?"

~.O.~

"Hello, Professor." Hermione tells Severus as she passes a portrait of a woman in a yellowed dress and cooing baby swaddled in a red blanket on her prefect rounds just days after they arrived back to the castle. Draco having left at the first sight of his godfather, he had passed him with a nod on his way back to the dungeons as he gave her a fleeting smirk just before disappearing from sight.

"Miss Granger," the tall man says to her as he naturally falls into step with her shorter stride, despite the fact that if anyone saw them together walking amicably together their jaws would drop. Anyone outside of the Order, anyway.

"Can I ask why you, Sir, seem to have been leaning as far away as you could from the Senior Undersecretary at the Opening Feast?" Remembering the all around _pink_ woman sitting next to Severus at the Head Table, Hermione couldn't help but cover a smile as she glances down the hall they had just turned into, double checking for nosy portraits.

Severus scowling down to the smaller girl at catching a glimpse of her grin, he sneers to go along with the lines between his brows, "Well, if you insist on knowing, girl, not only does she look pink, but she _smells_ pink as well. It seems to have a permanence upon the things close around her, I had to _Incendio_ a perfectly good set of robes for want of getting rid of the noxious odor."

Hermione's cheeks growing red in her sudden outburst of cackling in remembrance of passing the perfumed woman, as well as catching a new whiff of it from him walking beside her, Severus' eyes twinkled at the sight of her so obvious delight. "Now that is not a very charitable thought of our new Sister, dear, everyone has to have a favorite color." A quick glance from his head to toes from her allowed a slight curling of his lips. "Although, I have to concede that her course aims are absolutely ludicrous and put together by the Ministry, she seems to be just as insufferable as we previously thought as part of the Hogwarts faculty."

Making their way back towards the direction of Gryffindor tower, Hermione grabs Severus' hand within his robes, boldly stopping them within a shadowy corner of the hall and placing it on her waist. Grasping his other and backing against the wall, her eyes were the ones to twinkle up to him now, "How would you like to smell of me now, Severus? Or would you prefer to burn another perfectly nice set of robes and frock?"

Her low laugh seemed to echo the cooing of the portrait baby around the corner as the dark man lifted her against the rough stone. Both sets of voices disappearing behind a _Muffliato_ lest an out of bounds prefect come down their deserted hallway.

~.O.~

It was as if her entire head had gone numb to all feeling as Hermione stared down at the hand she held in her own, at the words scripted there in Harry's own scratchy and uneven writing branded into the fleshy part of his hand between his thumb and index finger.

_I must not tell lies… I must not tell lies… I must not tell… lies..._

While it might not have been carved into her own, the place where Umbridge's blood quill had added yet another scar to Harry's young body itched on her own pale hand as if she were the one to write the words into the flesh attached to her own body. Feeling another hand land lightly on her shoulder as Ron simply says nothing for a change while offering moral support to the wrong person, she squeezes Harry's fingers gently so as to not bother the red words before she releases him.

Smiling at him as she stood, she simply said, "I will get you some cream for it, Harry. I'll be back later."

It was only when she made her way down to the Dungeons, and standing in the open doorway to Severus' classroom, that the all- consuming rage set in at the woman who would mar the unmarked skin of children. Even as Harry's wounds were the only ones she had seen so far after a detention with Umbridge, Hermione had no doubt that the woman would not hesitate to use those horrid quills on the younger years. Some of the children who were new to the magical world as she had once been, bright- eyed at the prospect of magic and all that it could do, only to have that light dimmed by a woman who had no reason to be within Hogwarts in the first place as she dolled out a utterly barbaric punishment for any little crime. And that was a line that absolutely could not be even _entertained_ in crossing.

Now, as Hermione silently disillusioned herself while stepping into the shadows of the classroom, she watched as that _pink toad_ of a woman presumed to lay her pudgy pink nails on Severus' arm while simpering in her sickly sweet tone of voice. Stroking his black clad arm while he simply looked down at the woman with an expression mixed with both parts irritation and revulsion. Severus finally having had his daily dose of his new _Sister,_ as Hermione called her once upon a time in sarcastic jest, dislodged himself from her claws to retreat behind his desk while she thanked him for whatever help he had given her in her grating voice.

Abandoning her place in leave of following the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor as she continued on towards the staircase leading back down to her own office, Hermione once again felt a familiar savage instinct settle into her bones. An instinct that she had not felt in years since a Slytherin boy who thought he was more powerful than her had taken a trip down a set of stone steps. This time though, Hermione was much more powerful and smart than that one incident, smart enough to gauge when exactly the pink woman would twist her ankle in those hideous kitten heeled shoes just as she stepped upon the very edge of the tall staircase. Casting a simultaneous tripping jinx on the woman's calf as well as a silencing spell, after all it would not have to have any professors or students running about the halls to catch the falling professor from taking her little tumble, Hermione stood at the top of the staircase in satisfaction. Basking in her diminishing rage, she made her way back to Severus with a step of delight within her walk.

She then spent the better part of the next twenty minutes purring in Severus' lap, straddling his thighs tightly as her mouth worked his neck just high enough for the edges of her mark to be shown above the high collar of his coat. Marking him as her own, even as no one who would see the mark would dare to guess as to who had put it there. Righting her clothes in satisfaction at marking the man that not half an hour ago another woman allowed herself to touch what wasn't rightfully hers, Hermione informed the Potion Master of the woman now laying at the bottom of the staircase just down the hall before taking a tin of Murtlap Essence for Harry's hand. She ignored his familiar knowing look in favor of kissing him lightly before departing before him, allowing him time to right his clothes before he undoubtedly had to levitate the pink professor in an all too familiar trek to the Hospital Wing.

Despite the fact that she could have just as easily gone down another staircase to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione retraced her steps back toward the woman who was still laid sprawled out and unconscious upon the stone floor, her left arm and leg canted at a very odd angle beneath her body as her other ankle began turning a ghastly purple. Casting a quick _Finite Incantatem_ on the leftover silencing charm now that Severus would deal with her, Hermione gleefully went on her way after _accidentally_ stepping on the woman's dark wooden wand that lay several feet away from her body.

_Damn her words to the Dark Lord about steering clear of the revolting woman… she said nothing of leaving his mole in one piece once she left Hogwarts..._


	22. 5th Year Part Four

" _I'm not the jealous type, but what's mine is mine. End of story."_

~.O.~

Hermione watches with immense amusement as Harry begins his daily routine of Cho- watch. Every morning during breakfast for the past couple weeks he had began a particular order of events which included: sit down to Hermione's left, fill his plate with food that would then go untouched as he glanced up and down between the Ravenclaw table, see a certain dark haired girl glancing up to him as well, attempt to take a sip of pumpkin juice, and then spill it in the process of looking back up to the pretty girl with his cheeks stained pink before pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. And repeat for three more cycles with his attempt at eating replacing the need for a sip of his drink. At lunch he would then sit in favor of facing the Slytherin table rather than embarrass himself further in front of the girl in which he had a crush on.

Today though, Hermione waits for the ping- pong match to end before nudging the boy who looked to his full plate as if it had all the answers to the world problems. Shaking her head and chuckling slightly as he grew even redder, she whispers close to his ear, "Harry, if you shrink any more your nose will be stuffed full of your eggs."

He simply continued to stare down to his plate as she grew distracted by the daily post, opening the Daily Prophet after giving a knut and piece of bacon to the cute little owl who had held it's little leg out to her. Hooting sweetly as she giggles and pats it gently on the head, it takes flight once more as she nudged Harry once more to make him straighten up.

"Have you actually talked to her at all since asking her to the Yule Ball last year?"

Harry maintained his silence in the matter before speaking through food being shoveled into his mouth in typical Ron fashion to run away from her questions, "I don' wanna talk 'bout it."

Hermione shook her head at the boy as he quickly made his exit from the Great Hall, looking back to his table of interest the entire way that then had him bumping into several people and tripping over his robes in his hurry. Thinking through all his antics, she thought that at least he could think about liking girls through everything they had been through in the past couple years, even if it was the ex- girlfriend of the boy he had seen die within a graveyard.

_Green eyes looking to the unmoving boy… anguish filling his face..._

Placing the newspaper down in favor of moving her own half filled plate away, she herself was now the one to look to the silky haired girl.

_Grey eyes closed forever more… a boy's sobbing drowned out by a father's screams…_

~.O.~

She has finally given up on the uncooperative boys, Hermione thinks as she lays spread out on the common room loveseat, Crookshanks pinning her stomach down as he yawns hugely right in her face he shows off his pearly white canines and batting at the loose red thread of the quilt she had knitting in the air beside her. Harry and Ron playing wizarding chess on the ground in front of the fire where she lay, once again when they should have been writing their utterly useless Defense paper, Hermione falls asleep to the sound of purring on her chest, the knitting needles clacking to the ground, and Sirius talking to the boys in the fire about a wizarding army in the making within Hogwarts that would be able to fight back against Umbridge.

She was then awoken by a messy haired boy moving hair out of her face, and a crick within her neck from not situating herself when she had the chance for want of not disturbing Crookshanks who now was circling Harry's knees as he kneeled beside her.

"You can go to bed now, Hermione." Harry tells her, "Sorry for keeping you up so late, you fell asleep during Sirius' call anyway."

She patted his cheek lightly before yawning loudly, stretching her arms above her head and legs out before even moving from her sprawled out position, "It's alright, Harry."

Suddenly Ron pokes the side of her neck from where he had just walked behind the loveseat, causing Hermione to flinch and glare at him, rubbing the spot he had scratched her with his surprisingly sharp short fingernails. Her hair having fallen between the couch and her shoulder in her stretch, the red head and bespeckled boy on her other side each gazed at a light fading bruise just below her ear.

"What's that on your neck, 'Mione?" Once again he tries to touch the same spot, but she hissed and swiped at the hand he then snatched back in a hurry, knowing how much sharper her own nails were than his own. Evidence A, healed and faded scratch marks upon his cheek third year after he had apparently flung that bloody cat of hers across the room to save the creepy man- rat the orange menace had been trying to kill. He shuddered as he always did when thinking of Scabbers, of how many times he had woken up to find the rat face- to- face with him on his chest snuffling his face while he slept.

Hermione looked to her hand confusedly after lifting it from where it rubbed just beneath her ear, not seeing anything. Just as she opened her mouth to ask just what he decided to scratch her for though, her face flushed even deeper in the heat of the fire as comprehension and remembrance dawns on her.

_Hot mouths pressed tightly together… hard bruising kisses suckling at her neck in repayment of the branding she had done in her possessiveness high after Umbridge was laid safely in the infirmary..._

She quickly sat up before either of the boys could look closer at the fading shadow of a mark she knew she would find staining the pale skin of her neck if she were to look in a mirror, allowing her curls to cover up the very thing that she knew Harry wouldn't take an excuse for if his narrowed gaze was anything to go by. Hopefully he would forget it in his Cho infatuation the next morning.

"I don't see anything on my neck, Ron. But thank you for putting something there with your nails." She glared dirtily at him as he sheepishly turned red himself, picking up Crookshanks and disappearing up the stairs to the girl's dormitory.

Avoiding Harry's knowing eyes all the way around the corner.

..

Apparently Hermione had a new routine of her own as she worked Severus' neck once again, in retaliation for his payback that prompted Harry watching her ever more closely even if at breakfast he was only deterred momentarily.

"Harry and Ron saw the mark you left on me, Severus." She told the man in question as she pinned him down upon his green sheets, licking up the length of his long neck to soothe the sting she had made while her hands carded through the light smattering of soft dark hair upon his chest, all the way down to the waistband of his trousers. "You wouldn't have happened to _intend_ that to happen, would you have, my love?"

His voice was absolutely sinful in his laughter as he grabbed the hair behind her head to further his own darkening of his now faded mark, all in the aim of matching the new one making it's reappearance on his own skin. She bared her neck willingly despite all the trouble the last time had caused.

"I would have thought you'd have known better than that by now to ask such a question," his other hand slowly made it's way down her stomach, his long fingers making their way into her white panties. Flipping her beneath him with them still buried within her, he kissed his way down her chest before stopping to inhale the overwhelming scent at the apex of her thighs.

Hermione's head made it's way into the clouds of pleasure her love often took her too, only to have her hair yanked sharply in order to open her heavy lids once more. Severus' grin spoke of all the pleasures that were sure to come as he spoke once more.

" _Of course I marked you on purpose, girl. And now everyone who sees it will know you are taken."_

Hermione gasped as he bit her hip in a deep growl, purring loudly as he ripped her underwear down to her ankles to get at the very thing he claimed was his.

_Merlin and Morganna, the things this man could do with every inch of himself… how he could make her mind and body sing… and scream…_

~.O.~

 _High Inquisitor_ Dolores Umbridge was once again touching what was absolutely positively _not hers!_

Hermione's instincts actually snarled in the back of her head, edging her on to do much worse to the woman this time around.

She stirred her cauldron counterclockwise, counting in her head the number of turns, all the while staring through the thick steam rising from it to glare at the woman talking to Severus. With her stubby fingers placed upon the man's arm, _once again,_ as if she had the right to do so _._ While she might not have known that her twisted ankle was caused by her touching things she shouldn't have, Umbridge should have enough decency to not _flirtatiously_ disparage the man who was at this moment imperceptibly tightening his jaw and carefully folding his arms behind his back to get away from her perfumed touch. Like he should.

After Umbridge's bones had been mended, reluctantly by Madame Pomfrey, she blessedly was less of a menace for those who were sentenced detention with her as she could no longer threaten the students with her enchanted blood quills once her wand has been found smashed to pieces. Although, Crookshanks might have also had a hand in that aspect as he had trashed the woman's quill box on his Mistress' orders in order to gain some tasty tuna every Friday as a good- boy treat. Not that she didn't already dote on him, but nonetheless, he deserved some extra. But even so, it was obviously only a temporary fix if the wand poking out of her sleeve was anything to go by.

Hermione winced as Umbridge's overly sweet simpering prompted another teeth grind from Severus, her oh so high knowledge of potions granting her the privilege of telling the Potions Master that the _Ministry_ thought the potions they were at the moment working on would best be taken off their syllabus. Hermione could just imagine the creative slurs Severus was calling the High Inquisitor Undersecretary in his head at that moment as his eyes glared down to the short woman.

" _Hermione!_ " She heard hissed on the other side of the isle, turning to see Draco nod down to her hand which had taken the glass stirring rod out of her potion once the turns were done and was now squeezing it to the brink of it's breaking point. Minute cracks could be seen forming from bottom to middle.

She glanced at the blonde sheepishly as she set the instrument back down beside the cauldron, watching as his eyes questioningly glanced to Severus and Umbridge before resting back on her. She tilted her head towards him once before listening in on them once more, only to hear the woman simper one last time, "You understand don't you, Severus?" As if she truly cared about offending him with the curriculum she devised under the name of the Ministry. And maybe she _had_ found a place in her black heart for the powerful man of whom she had heard much of in the Dark Lord's circles. Much of which centered his name around being one of the people within his closest inner circle, to which she was not in but so desperately wanted to be.

Hermione turned back to her own work, commiting her mind over as Severus was once again alone, boring his eyes into her profile before continuing on his rounds about the classroom. Intent on his students finishing with the potion he had just been told was now outlawed by the Ministry.

It was a pity really. This time she would just have to bide her time in teaching the woman a true lesson, after all it would be no good if she were to have one too many accidental trips down the stairs and cause a nosy man to become curious as to why that was.

Tom may yet have cause to punish her for disobeying his new orders he had relayed through Severus once he caught wind of her last fall. Even so, his orders weren't entirely heartfelt in the first place, as he had no need to relay them to her personally but simply through the Potion Master. And the fact that he gave no mention of punishment himself other than giving her the warning.

_Cause no permanent damage to the woman, Hermione._

She might yet find a way around those orders regardless as one couldn't see mental scars no matter how hard one looked to you on the outside lest you dive into their mind of your own accord.

..

Hermione's small rebellions began with prettily wrapped candies encased in pink and white striped paper, placed within a delicate little box that was then delivered to her office filled with dozens of meowing kitten portraits. Fred and George, who had simply raised an eyebrow to her asking for a dozen of their in- progress versions of prank candies, gave her more than enough to tempt the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor to indulge in her sweet tooth.

So, it was with great satisfaction that during the middle of dinner the day Umbridge had received her so thoughtful gift, that she placed her hand just touching Severus as she popped one into her mouth. Immediately breaking out into painful looking boils, the woman screamed loud enough to be heard in the courtyard of the castle beside the Black Lake. Jumping out of her seat only for it to trip her as it fell behind her, she held her hands up in the air to display the boils that had been restricted to her hands as they mimicked gloves as they raised to her wrists and covered every inch of her pudgy digits.

The Great Hall filled with the children's silence, her wails the only sound in the room before laughter broke out at the comical way the woman was rolling on the ground as if she were trying to put out a fire on her robes.

Severus merely sneered down to the theatrics of the now pink skinned woman, continuing to eat as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened while Madame Pomfrey escorted the crying woman towards the familiar trek to the infirmary. Fred and George looked to Hermione with wide eyes at the familiar candies that were now strewn across the floor in front of the Great Table, although she remained carefully oblivious of the attention as she told Ron to stop spraying food all around the table in his laughter.

..

With the new Educational Decrees being pinned on every available wall, which was most of them as the poor portraits were taken down, Hermione concocted a new rebellion that would no doubt undermine Umbridge even further. As well as further several of Hermione's own aims.

She fell asleep that night with Sirius of all people's words echoing in her mind. His words of fighting back against the oppression of the new school system coordinated by the _Ministry_ resonating with her deeply ingrained Gryffindor values.

_She quite missed the quiet cooing of the portrait that had once held the mother and baby just to the right of the Fat Lady… the small boy always having had a jolly chubby cheeked smile and giggle for her as she greeted it and the mother on her way into the common room everyday…_

~.O.~

Hermione spent the better part of two weeks trying to convince Harry of the necessity of forming a group of people across the Hogwarts houses that would be taught Defense Against the Dark Arts, with him as the main spokesperson. It did not at all go well just as she originally thought, although his stubbornness was nothing compared to her own in the face of something she believed was necessary. And she absolutely believed in the necessity of bringing together the children of Hogwarts to undermine Umbridge, even if she was never privy to the fact that she _was_ being undermined. Chances were at the very least, with as many people as Hermione anticipated participating in the back alley club, she would most likely know _something_ was going on as Hogwarts students could not keep a secret for the life of them.

_Although, The Dark Lord would not very very pleased at the thought of the children learning spells and charms that would have a high probability to be used against him… but even he could not begrudge a student's want of learning as he himself was such a staunch advocate of the need to cultivate your knowledge…_

Eventually, Hermione's more overwhelming personality won out against the Boy- Who- Lived's, and wore him down to finally entertaining the facts of what she had been telling him. Although, even as she tried to delicately as possible inform him the benefits of having as many people on his side of things who believed the Dark Lord had returned, as obviously the Daily Prophet was poisoning many people against him and Dumbledore, the better he would feel without the added stress of constantly arguing with his roommates as well. Suffice to say, she made him finally say something other than no to her ideas, without listening to all the facts at least.

His face was as red as Ron's often was in his exhilarated outburst of anger, " _It was all luck, Hermione!_ I was lucky that Voldemort let me go from that graveyard, for some unknowable reason except to him and his _Death Eaters_ ," he spit out the name of the Dark Lord's followers, "It was only luck that he wasn't able to kill me when I was a baby just because of some absolutely bloody weird magic, and it was only luck that I have lived through every other life threatening encounter I have been through! _You don't know what it is like to face the man who has ruined my entire life!_ "

_Oh, my sweet boy… I know what it is like to have that bottomless pit in your stomach as you face that singular person who could completely destroy you… but I grin and bear it as always… it is the only thing to do to keep all of us alive once this war is over…_

_Most of us…_

Hermione continued to stare him down calmly, only speaking once his complexion was his own once more, "It was not luck, Harry. You have always had people looking out for you caring for you when you have been in those situations. Be it magic, the gods, or your friends and family, you have _always_ been looked over whether you have known it or not."

The boy opens his mouth, but Hermione continues undeterred, "Now, if you would at least agree to one meeting, _one,_ even if all it accomplishes is to give you a chance to explain your perspective and no one agrees to defense meetings, I would say we accomplished something." She stops to catch her breath, "I will set everything up, all you have to do is show up and speak when you need to."

He stares at her for a moment before nodding, whispering, "Okay."

Hermione smiles brilliantly, grabbing him up in a hug at her victory, not at all knowing weeks ago how hard it would be to get the boy to break the rules.


	23. 5th Year Part Five

_“I thought about how there are two types of secrets: the kind you want to keep in, and the kind that you don’t dare let out.”_

_~Ally Carter_

~.O.~

Hermione paced in front of a blank wall in the middle of a deserted seventh floor corridor, remembering Severus’ words of once using a room dubbed The Come and Go Room, or The Room of Requirement, to escape the bullying antics of the four teenage Marauders. Crookshanks, who followed her each time across the floor, eventually became dizzy and began walking in loopy lines, prompting Hermione to scoop him up in her arms. Harry and Ron exchanged glances as they looked at the wild haired girl as if she had finally gone mental after all these years, and Ron had just opened his mouth to question her actions as two heavy black wooden doors appeared. Replacing a wall of what was once solid stone.

“How did you find this place?” Harry looked around at the walls of books and rows of chairs that covered a spacious room.

Hermione smiled, placing her bag down on a table beside the door, “The castle showed me. The room can give you anything you focus really hard on, unless it is food. Even magic can not conjure food from thin air.”

As Harry flopped down to await the first arrivals of people Hermione had sent out to their respective houses to recruit for the meeting, Hermione lingered outside the new doorway in order to guide people in. Just days ago, she had brought together the twins, Luna, Draco, and Susan Bones from Hufflepuff in order to get the word out to their housemates about learning to defend themselves against Umbridge and her new Inquisitorial Squad who had a habit of playing nasty. Passing OWLs were simply an added bonus to those who had thus far had been dealing with the subpar Defense Against the Dark Arts professors.

Although Harry had staunchly argued against the Slytherins who had made up most of Umbridge’s little posse, Hermione had reminded him that his house prejudices had nothing to do with passing their owls and defending themselves. With little more to say in the face of Hermione’s once again stubbornness which had gotten him into the situation he was currently in, and thus he acquiesced reluctantly to her wishes. As she gave out fake galleons she had placed a _Protean_ charm on for their communications to each of the recruiters, she warned each of them to choose who they trusted carefully, with emphasis on Draco who had discreetly told her he was simply part of the squad to remain aware of their movements and patrols.

She had given him a disbelieving look, shaking it off as she sent them on their way.

_Yeah right, and being able to take points away from Gryffindor certainly didn’t help soothe the ache of belonging to a group of students that had just as much authority as the HEad Boy and Girl._

Gradually, various people from each of the houses trickled into the Room in twos and threes as to avoid the suspicion of the patrolling professors and previously mentioned Inquisitorial Squad. Eventually as a significant number of people were gathered, Hermione put down a cranky Crookshanks who had refused to allow his sensitive foot pads onto the cold floor while waiting for everyone to assemble. 

“Watch for new people, Crookshanks,” she kissed him on the nose, knowing all he had to do was put a paw to the doors for them to creak open enough for whoever came late to let themselves inside. He meowed sweetly up to her with his yellow eyes, having forgiven her one he was set an assignment, watching vigilantly around the corridor he was now charged in stalking.

Slipping into the now sound filled room, Hermione sees that most of the couches and hammocks had been filled by the younger year students, with a smattering of the older years who were most likely family of the others. Hermione thought once she saw them, that it was very likely many of the people that had shown up today would not show their faces again for the defense lessons, wanting to only hear Harry’s morbid story of Cedric’s death. Just as she placed herself to attention in front of the room, Harry and Ron each beside her, the door opened to a platinum headed boy with an orange cat at his heels, as well as a darker skinned and darker blonde Slytherin than those of the Malfoy line. Several people who had seen the group of boys enter the room jumped from their seats as if they were ready to run from the room, knowing that Draco was Umbridge’s little pet when it came to the Inquisitorial Squad. A nod seen between herself and the Malfoy heir settled them reluctantly as him, Theo, and Blaise all took a seat closest to the door. All the while Crookshanks did his best to put the boy’s and his mistress’ friendship out into the open as he circled the boy’s crossed ankles.

_It seemed as if he was still a little bit titchey to no longer being carried around like a kitten…_

_“Malfoy!?”_ The hissed name coming from either side of her, causing her to sigh as she knew this was the exact reaction she had been expecting when she had neglected to mention who exactly she had sent to Slytherin house when informing them of the others. Although, there were no overturned tables as of yet. More and more people grew silent until they were all looking at the trio at the head of the room, and Harry’s nervousness was once again showing through even this anger at the Slytherins of their year entering their _illicit_ club.

“ _He is a prefect who has the trust of those in his house, so be quiet until I tell you to speak and deal with it!_ ” She hissed back to them, causing them to take a step back at her glare before she turned back to the crowd all watching them. Glancing between her and Harry who was taking her hisses for silence quite clearly, although Ron remained slightly glaring at the side of her face while she once again surveyed her audience.

Hermione cleared her throat and began her speech, “Everyone here has come for a reason. Rather that reason be that they want to learn how to fight against the people who are oppressing us, you see this simply as a way to gain the necessary information to pass your OWLS, or to listen to Harry’s point of view on the death of Cedric Diggory at the hands of Voldemort,” several shrieks and yelps sounded throughout the room, many simply flinching at the name whom no one dared speak. Several people also attempted to open their mouths to interrupt her as well, although their jaws audibly snapped back at the look she gave each of them not unlike the glares she had not moments ago given the two boys behind her. “This room we are in now is called the Room of Requirement, or the Come and Go Room. This is where we will be meeting if you choose to continue Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons with me and Harry,” she nods to him, “teaching you everything we can, along with anyone else who would like to teach us anything useful. The coins that were passed out will show you the date and time as it has done today.” Hermione pauses gauging those around the room who still looked reluctant, knowing there was to be some protests to what she was to say next, especially from Harry and Ron as she knew they would disapprove even more than inviting Draco Malfoy to their secret in- the- making club. Blood magic being considered more of a darker magic than light, she knew there would be many protests but she would not budge no matter the backfall. Severus taught her to protect herself and those she loved by any means, and by the gods she would by any means. “If anyone should choose _not_ to continue with these meetings after today, I will take back your communication galleon, along with a drop of blood that will cue it to you, and if you should tell anyone not in this room without permission from myself or Harry, your name will be known for everyone to do with you what they will.”

Several loud protests were raised at this revelation, Hermione seeing Draco’s pale eyebrows raise in surprised agreement as well as the two boys’ after they had exchanged a glance behind Draco’s head. 

Waiting for the room to quiet again, and the yanking on her arms to subside once again, she said, “Unless someone is intending to inform the _High Inquisitor_ of what we have spoken of today, then this precaution should not have any disagreements to it. As well as the fact that many of you are friends and family of someone who will intend on continuing after today, it should also not pose as a problem to protect their well being either way.”

These last words silenced the remaining protests, some looking as if they were shameful children at Hermione’s tone of voice and manner of speaking that was becoming more like Severus’ with each passing year. Motioning to Harry to step up, she placed a hand on his back for moral support as Ron looks on to her as if he had never seen her before.

..

After the meeting ended, Hermione made her way to Severus’ office in order to give him his own _Protean_ charm of sorts, the idea having come to her while making the galleons and making her pause in how she had not thought of such a thing before. Barging in on him as he completed his grading for the day, she gently set a copy of a page that listed each of those students who had chosen to stay within _Dumbledore’s Army_ as Harry had dubbed it. To Hermione’s quiet displeasure even as the others written on the list agreed heartily with it, with the obvious displeasure of the older Slytherins as they signed their own names.

Severus lifted one dark eyebrow to the paper now covering the one stained red with his thinly veiled comments of the essay writer’s stupidity. Thankfully, she had never done anything to warrant much of those. Even as he had always been a fair if not hard professor pertaining to each of his students' work, or downright evil if you asked any other student, he never held back on what she herself did wrong as she deserved no special treatment when it came to the work she turned in even if she wanted it. The fact that their relationship had evolved beyond what Severus had with any other student besides Draco, it was a completely irrelevant fact when coming to a skill she would most likely need for her future.

“A copy of each of the members in _Dumbledore’s Army,_ ” she laughed at his derisive sniff and curl of the lip as he scanned the page, to which was paired with the fewer returned galleons than she thought she would receive from those who opted out of continuing with extra Defense lessons. Granted, most were from the few older year students who she had thought simply showed up for Harry’s explanation of his short time with the Dark Lord, and as usual, she was proved in the right. “If you hear of someone on this list talking to Umbridge of the army, just tap it with your wand to turn it red and I will see. Not that it will make any difference, as soon as a name turns red the person will be cursed as a snitch the moment the color bleeds.”

_While Tom may not have an issue with young students acquiring new knowledge, he may take issue with the name as well…_

Severus once again raised that damning eyebrow, pulling her into his lap from where she had sat on the corner of his desk among his papers.

“You have been having trouble curbing your _impulses_ as of late, girl.”

Hermione laughed, twining her arms around his neck before kissing his cheek, “Not _trouble_ I would say, more like using them constructively.” He rolled his eyes in a completely undignified manner at her excuse, “I also have a present for you.”

Taking up his hand that his leather bracelet she had given him years ago while tapping her wand to the disk holding his initials, she then tapped her own new charm that held a similar loopy _H_.

“There,” she held his wrist to his eyes so that he could see the message she had enchanted onto his wrist, the leather having grown warm as the message replaced his normal _S_ before disappearing once he had read it. “I’ve made us our own _protean_ charms in case of emergency.”

He looked down to her smiling, “You are turning out to be the most formidable witch, my girl.” He kissed her lips before responding to her message, “I love you too.”

Hermione giggled as his fingers then squirmed all over her ribs.

~.O.~

The skies grew dark above the Quidditch pitch stands where Hermions sat with Luna and Ginny, watching as Harry and Ron finished up their drills for the day, Ron having informed them of his want to try out for Keeper next year. The two other girls stood as the first raindrops of the day sprinkle down onto their faces, knowing that these Scotland storms came on suddenly and without warning at times.

Waiting for the boys despite the redhead and blonde’s urgings to outrun the rain, Hermione watched as they made their way to her on foot. Watching as Harry absentmindedly rubs the scar that marred his forehead after pushing back his windswept hair. The first few droplets of water running down her face like tears, words of prophecy and shame clouding a memory, words of plot clouding another.

_Tom continues to touch her in a way not at all befitting a simple servant, but one of beloved value as he tells her of a prophecy made years ago. One that had prompted his downfall, as well as that of the remainder of the Potter family._

_“Find out where Dumbledore has hidden the prophecy, Hermione.” His warm hand caressed the apple of her cheek in plain view of Severus who stood behind her, watching with impassive eyes. A simple black ring of stone and gold glinted in what little light surrounded them, the stone fitted snugly to his middle finger. “It would be no good if he were to utilize it against me, create an army of the light all loyal to a boy is supposed to be my downfall.”_

_Hermione looked at him from beneath her lashes, “I will not fail you, my Lord.”_

~.O.~

“I bloody well _hate_ that woman!” Ron exclaims, speaking of Umbridge as they walk through Hagrid’s very large oversized pumpkin patch. Having visited the wounded giant and seeing his broken and battered face being held together by a raw steak, Hermione took to healing the man who spilled his guts as to why he had been gone on vacation before the school year had started. Dumbledore having sent him on a mission to talk to his mother’s kin, his giant kin, the large creatures made it very clear that they were not to side with the light. Preceding to then inform the boys, and Hermione who had already known of this new information, that the Death Eaters have also been recruiting in the ministry as well as the creatures who hid in the vast woods of Great Britain.

Hermione began picking snowdrops from the field around them that they had decided to rest on as the sun set below the hill. Braiding them into a crown to which she then put atop her curls as she listened to the boys rant and rave about all that was unfair in the fight against the Dark Lord. She thought of how ironic it was that the small white flowers she wore represented new beginnings, although she knew nothing of the purity aspect in which they represented above all else.

Harry gets her attention just as she is weaving a second small wreath the size of a wrist, “What do you think about it, ‘Mione?”

She smiled slightly at his carefully inquisitive tone, knowing that he had been expecting her to be putting in the thoughts even back when their conversation had began before they even visited Hagrid, but instead remained silent.

“I am not surprised,” she remains focused on the task at hand, her small fingers nimbly braiding the plant in her hand with practiced movements. “It isn’t anything new really, but you simply have to have hope and be optimistic that everything will work out just fine.” Her lips curl slightly at his raised eyebrows, knowing she not at all sounds like her normal self. “I know I sound naive, but you can’t lose faith, Harry. Not in the power of what you believe in, because if the people who look up to you see, they will start to lose their own faith in the goodness of the world as well.”

_I have faith that a man formerly known as Tom Riddle, Voldemort, will prove to be the man I so hope he can be… I have faith in the loyalty of the man now known as Marvolo…_

“When did you become a spokesperson for goodness and belief?” Ron asks from her other side, “I thought we all got that was what Dumbeldore’s speeches were for.”

She laughed undeterred as she slipped the snowdrop bracelets onto each of their wrists to match the one secured around her forehead that made her look all the part of a nymph of the woods.

“I am simply saying that we are only as strong as our friendship, as I have told Harry already.” He squeezed the hand she grabbed, remembering her words of never being alone.

_I hope like hell our friendship will last… although I know it is most likely a futile and impossible hope… much like impossible loves..._

~.O.~

Severus had pulled her into an alcove as each of the prefects had divided up parts of the castle they should decorate with Christmas tinsel, and apparently the castle decided it was much fun to trap unsuspecting peoples under the suddenly appearing and delicately flowering mistletoe. Which led to Hermione abandoning her post within the dungeons which she had so gracefully volunteered for despite Draco’s knowing smirk who had volunteered to stay in the Great Hall. His infernal look then wiped off his face as he tried to catch his breath from the pointy elbow Hermione sent into his kidney even as he still had the nerve to laugh at her once he was a sufficient way away out of the reach of her body parts that might cause him harm.

It wasn’t long before Harry and Ron came looking for their friend though, despite the fact that Ron was supposed to be helping to decorate the enormous tree in the Great Hall. But it was time for lunch, and most likely the redhead had shirked his duty long before anyway.

“I hope ‘Mione doesn’t try to get me back to hanging tinsel,” they heard Ron’s voice from their hiding spot, Severus continuing to work on her neck despite her giggling for him to stop. “Peeves’ has already tried to strangle me with it three times already.”

Harry laughs as Ron rubs the light red line that was forming, just as they got to the last known spot of Hermione before she had been accosted. The two boys followed the hanging line of tinsel before coming to a dead end, the decorations having been dropped to the floor haphazardly with pieces of silver scattered around in a long hallway with no one in sight. They looked at each other with frowns, just as a bell hit each of them on the head from nowhere. Ron flinching and crouching on instinct, expecting Peeves to have stalked them about the castle. 

“Hermione!” he says, a little hysterical while knowing that for some reason the jokester ghost was afraid of the small girl. 

_Most likely due to Severus having warned him off her multiple times before, and now is sufficiently terrified of her by proxy._

But it seemed that Peeves had not stalked him about the castle this day, and it was only furry little Crookshanks who was now chasing the two jingle bells further down the hall, zig zagging back and forth between the two to keep them moving. As he disappeared around the corner, Hermione made a deliberate scuff with her shoe as she startled the boys who twirled back towards her disheveled form with their hearts beating straight out of their chests. Ron had crouched once again, expecting water balloons to be pelted at his head like so many other times before.

“Hi,” Hermione said brightly, fixing her messed up clothes deftly while pulling up her sleeve from where it had been pulled to show her bare shoulder, although her even wilder than normal hair and glazed eyes could not be righted as easily as the sleeve.

Watching as she picked up the fallen lanyard of tinsel and adding more to the walls to finish the line, Harry looked to her with knowing eyes, “Where were you ‘Mione?”

She didn’t even blink as she answered his question, “I was looking for some bells that had been scattered around.

Ron looked back to Harry with wide eyes, away from the girl that obviously was concealing a tryst with an unknown boy. Harry was undeterred as he walked a little ways back down the hall for anyone else that surely must have been still hidden as the wide hall would have not concealed any secrets.

Seeing no one but not for a second believing his friend’s obvious lie, he said, “Crookshanks went off with them around the corner.”

She laughs, and Harry can’t help but notice a smudge of lip gloss that had been fanned out from the corner of her mouth. They all started back at the Great Hall, Ron forgoing his suspicions of Hermione being a girl as usual in order to get to his food sooner rather than later. Although, just as they round the corner from the way Crookshanks had disappeared, the trio ran into a black clad wall, causing them to take a step back for want of being accused of not paying attention to their surroundings.

“Miss Granger,” Professor Snape held out two slightly dented silver balls in his long fingers, “If you could refrain from allowing your familiar to damage Hogwarts property, it would be greatly appreciated.”

Each of the students blinked up to the man, Hermione taking the bells with a smile, “Thank you, Professor Snape. I will keep that in mind.”

She dragged the boys on their way, keeping their eyes forward in order to distract from her familiar _destroying_ the professor’s own personal property by way of batting at his billowing cloak with his claws in retaliation of his toys being taken away.

Harry writes the weird encounter off, putting an arm over the girl’s shoulders to whisper into her ear, “Are you ever going to tell us who you have been spending your time with?” His finger came to the smudge on her cheek to rub it away.

She smiles up to him, “Eventually.”


	24. 5th Year Part Six

_“Meet me in the middle of your story when your soul is worn but wise.”_

_~ Angie Weiland- Crosby_

~.O.~

The Room of Requirement was filled with laughter and sudden cackles from two distinct voices that had the same tenor of voice. Just a day before many of Dumbledore’s Army was to leave for Christmas holiday, Harry had called a meeting to say goodbye for those weeks that they would be apart from the school. Even though most everyone had become friends with those who participated within the underground club, several people were still distrustful of the Slytherins who had a way of grouping together. Although Hermione had seemed to breach that gap slightly as she made sure to pay special attention to the few younger yeared Slytherins, particularly an affection little girl who Draco had said was very sweet. This coming from him being very odd seeing as how he had never seemed like the type to call anyone _sweet,_ but Hermione had an inkling he saw her as a younger sister with eerily similar hair to his own that he never had the chance in indulging.

As Fred and George cackled, overwhelming the background noise of chattering and softer laughs, Hermione continued playing a slightly modified version of Gobstones with the shy little second year Slytherin girl. Girlish giggles added to the ambiance as she lost her game, but instead of being sprayed with foul smelling liquid she was perfumed by a stream of fragrant baby flowers Hermione had charmed to flutter around her face in imitation of butterflies. Waving goodbye to the small girl who smiled brightly at her as she went off with her other friends, Hermione sat with Ginny, Luna, and Cho who were watching Draco, Blaise, Harry, and Ron dueling each other. Smiling at how well the boys were all getting along despite their pasts and Draco’s sometimes horrible attitude, Hermione felt a soft thump on the side of the ballet flats she wore. Looking down to see a clear opaque marble laying beside her foot, she picked it up only to watch as the insides of the ball twirl into a roiling black as if dark mist were swimming lazily within it.

Sudden cackles that had died down since then started up close to her ears, startling her into looking up into the twins sharklike grins that were directed to her. She immediately narrowed her eyes as the others all turned around to make her the center of their attention.

Lifting an eyebrow, she gave a defensive, “What are those grins for?” and just knew she would not like the answer they gave her as their own eyebrows gave a simultaneous wiggle of their own.

Crouching down in front of her knees they crowned to her, placing their hands on their hearts.

_“Well, well, Miss Granger-”_

_“You seem to doom us all to hell.”_

_“If you are not-”_

_“- the example of purity-”_

_“-then who is?”_

Ron asked the bewildered question that roiled through Hermione’s own mind, reminiscent of the mist within the ball. 

“What the bloody hell are you two going on about?”

Fred snatched back the marble from her fingers as it briefly turned opaque once more before returning back to the blackness it was in Hermione’s hands, throwing it to Ron as it once again changed color to a thick grey mist.

_“That little beauty- ”_

_“- allows for a certain kind of- ”_

_“-insight into a person’s experience.”_

_“Sexual experience that is.”_

_“White means purest of the pure-”_

_“- and black means-”_

_“The opposite!”_

The two boys looked back to the heavily blushing Hermione once more as she saw Harry and the girls all giving her completely surprised looks as they had never seen her even entertain the thought of interest in one of their classmates, despite going to the Yule Ball with Victor Krum that was even then a complete fling. Draco was the only one to look at her with an absence of surprise, although his expression had more of a disgusted overtone to it, no doubt growing nausous at the thought of his previously thought to be asexual godfather deflowering his best girl- friend.

“It must be broken,” Ron murmurs unconvincingly, throwing it at one of the twin’s heads who caught it deftly while looking at Hermione with an indecipherable expression.

Fred and George pulled the girl to her feet in order to swing their arms over her shoulders, regretting their teasing of her when she quickly snatched back the thrice damned intrusive marble with quick fingers. She ducked both of their attempts to retrieve it back, running away from their yells on nimble feet to the beat of her giggles.

“You both should be ashamed of yourselves tricking and embarrassing people in this way,” her scolding was somewhat downplayed though by the chortles she kept trying to hide to no avail, the twins racing along after her around the room. Her laughter turning to shrieks just as the boys grabbed her up and spun her in the air, many of those in the room looking on in amusement at their antics.

Ron continued with his previous duel with Blaise with new fervor, surprising even himself as he managed to disarm the other Pureblood Slytherin. Draco made way for Ginny to duel a grinning Harry who now had absolute proof that his best friend was seeing someone if the never fading bruises on her neck were not evidence enough, the blonde sitting beside Luna with a green tinge to his face that took several minutes to fade.

..

It was that revelation that prompted Draco to keep looking between Hermione and Severus the next time he joined them in the professor’s rooms once he allowed his body all the way into the room. Hermione lay on the black couch sprawled out in her signature fuzzy socks while Severus continued grading at his desk, although the blonde boy’s glances were currently getting right on her nerves so she threw little glares and scowls at him distracting her from her book.

As Draco pulled her feet up and sat on the couch beneath her legs as he normally did without pause, he suddenly froze his breathing and tensed up. Hermione continued her reading with steadfast diligence just as he asked, “Should I be sitting here? Is it sacred ground?”

Placing her book carefully on the coffee table with an exaggerated movement, Draco’s teasing mask turned worried as she continued on to calmly stare at him a moment. Just before she grabs his shoulders and flings them both to the ground, her own shoulder just narrowly missing the edge of said table as Draco made the signature huffing sound of his lungs deflating as he took the role of the cushion that broke the girl’s own fall.

“Not yet, Darling.” Hermione smirks at him.

Severus shakes his head at the two tenagers before looking back down to his grading, Draco letting out an “Ewww!” at Hermione’s words before laughing when she slid her cold fingers beneath his shirt and tickled his ribcage.

~.O.~

Hermione was in the realm of unconsciousness that was between wakefulness and sleep, but she could hear and feel things in both as always. Having fallen asleep in Harry’s bed after talking with the other boys in the dorm room as well about visiting her parents in France for the holidays, the sounds of the other boys around her were not loud enough to wake her permanently and go back to her own bed. It was then with this half consciousness though that she could feel Harry start stirring from where his head lay on her stomach, and hear Ron’s faint noring from his own bed. Heavily, her hand came up to try and soothe the darker haired boy back to sleep, placing her thumb on one of his eyebrows like her mother had done for her when she was small in order to rub slowly back and forth across it. It calmed him for a minute, just long enough for her to sink a bit deeper into the blackness, but was roused once again as Harry began whimpering enough for her attempts at soothing to no longer work. Opening her blurry eyes as he rolled over off her stomach, her eyes cleared enough in the dark to see him grabbing his scar and twisting his head from side to side in silent pain.

Grabbing his shoulders to try and coax him from his dreaming, she found that it was futile as she began panicking, never before having seen her best friend in this way.

 _“Ron!”_ her voice shrieked in the silence of the dorm, violently waking the other boys from their dreams as well. _“Seamus! Dean! Neville!”_ Her voice had turned hysterical in a way she had never heard herself speak in such a way either, tears blurring her vision as Harry kept on whimpering softly, as if any louder was not possible.

_Why won’t he wake up? Why isn’t he waking up?_

Hermione suddenly choked back her sobs as Harry’s eyes opened to the other boys' shakings, staring at Hermione for a split second with a sudden smile upon his previously whimpering lips. She let the boy go in shock, jerking back slightly in whole body surprise at the blue color his eyes had flashed just before they returned to Harry’s bright green once more.

“I’ll get Professor McGonagall,” Hermione heard one of the others say through her ears as if they were filled with water, her lungs feeling as if they were drowning suddenly as Harry’s own mouth opened to gasp in the air once he was free from whatever was previously holding him back from making any noise.

Quickly grabbing his shoulders, Ron helped to keep both of them from falling over the edge as Harry vomited beside his bed until he began dry heaving. Hermione observed his pale face anxiously, although he turned to Ron even as he gripped her hand in a death hold.

“It’s your dad, Ron.”

The redhead and Hermione exchanged looks, having no idea as to the nightmare Harry had just witnessed in the body of the Dark Lord’s familiar.

..

Hermione sat waiting in the Headmaster’s office, Harry’s hand still tightly holding her own as he had yet to release it even as they had entered this new location as Ron did the same on her other side with an infinitely more worried look to his face after the scene Harry had made while dreaming. Professor McGonagall having come running still in her dressing gown and free floating hair at the urgings of a frantic Seamus, she now stood next to Dumbledore who sat at his desk, staring at Harry with unreadable and un-twinkling eyes. Hermione eyeing the dozens of former Hogwarts Headmistresses and Headmasters upon the walls who observed the boy whose hand she held, although she did see the occasional glance out of the corner of their eyes towards her own curly head.

_“I was in the snake’s body...” Harry whispered, “I was looking for something but I couldn’t find it, and that’s when I saw Mr. Weasley and I bit him. The snake bit him. That’s it.”_

Hermione was confused as to why Nagini was in the ministry in the first place seeing as how the Dark Lord had not given them any information indicating as to why that may be, but her very best guess was that the Dark Lord had sent her to do his bidding in search of the lost prophecy just as he had charged Hermione and Severus with obtaining first hand information. Although she knew that the Dark Lord was in search of the thing he sent her to Hogwarts to find news of from Harry, she knew that he would not be simply sitting idly by waiting for news of such a precious thing he seemed to want above all else. Most likely wherever Nagini had been sent only to encounter Arthur had been a last minute development of information that he had not had cause to raise attention to just yet. After all, they served him, not the other way around. Meanwhile things proceeded along outside of Hermione’s whirling thoughts as Severus, who was now entering the room with a brood of redheaded ducklings in tow, had heard no word from their master on the matter so far as he would have sent her a _Protean_ message immediately. Not even a warning burn on his Dark Mark to show for the near loss of a beloved member of the Light.

But most of all, she was worried about Harry’s nightmares and of how her best friend had managed to gain the eyes of Marvolo Riddle. 

_How had Harry gained the dark blue eyes she had seen look into her own many times before?_

As Dumbledore, Harry, and the Weasleys departed from Hogwarts through the floo, Hermione made her way to Severus who stood beneath the portrait of a sleeping former Slytherin Headmaster who had his eyes open just enough to see her stand beside the dark shadow of a man and grab the hand that hid beneath his ever-present teaching robes. Minerva ushered both of them out of the Headmaster's office, urging them to quickly disappear under a disillusionment charm just as they heard the little tapping of a pink woman's short kitten heels echoing outside the door.

..

Severus came up behind Hermione as she held her head in her hands, placing his large hands on her tired shoulders to slowly but thoroughly rub the tension out of them. Her fingers were already gently massaging her eye socket in gentle circles in an effort to relieve a pain that had appeared hours ago when they had first stepped into Dumbledore’s office.

“What was that, Severus?” she asked her love, her tension slowly dissolving beneath his continuous ministrations, as he always managed to accomplish no matter the issue that had caused her current state. “How did Harry have the Dark Lord’s eyes? How did he get into his mind?”

“I don’t know how it was possible, girl.” He turned her body around on the sofa so that he could pull her back to his chest. “But everything is going according to plan, and besides, we always knew there was some sort of communication between the boy and the Dark Lord. There is nothing new we have learned today.”

“Except that Arthur has been hurt, and the extent of their connection is that the Dark Lord can _physically_ take over Harry’s body to some extent.” Hermione was silent for a moment, thinking potentially dangerous thoughts, “He is getting impatient, making mistakes. Becoming unstable, Severus.”

_Grey eyes closed forever more at the end of a green light… blue eyes staring out at her with curled lips on a face that should have never bared them at all…_

He says nothing to her, simply wrapping his arms tighter around her chest as they waited for news on Arthur’s condition. When Fawkes finally appeared in a flame of fire with a roll of parchment tied to his leg, Severus unwrapped it after running a finger down the Phoenix’s back in thanks. The beautiful bird’s tail feathers shook in pleasure and disappeared once again in a flame of fire and a happy warble. Hermione sighed in relief as Severus’ own frame sagged in it’s own released tension, no doubt word being that Mr. Weasley had been successfully transferred to St. Mungos from wherever he had been that Dumbledore had neglected to mention to Severus. She knew he had been anxious to see the Weasley patriarch given the anti- venin he had made from Nagini’s leftover venom from the Dark Lord’s resurrection ritual months ago, to see it’s results as it was not a particularly common venom that needed a constant antidote for that required rigorous testing. Hermione’s body sagged in further relief once she read the paper for herself that confirmed the father was now being healed, although it would be a long recovery process.

_Dumbledore never had been able to tell one person the whole truth… especially not Severus who, despite his history, he never could truly and fully know whose allegiance he fell under… was it him…? The Dark Lord…? Or himself that was the cause of this almost tragedy because he could not seem to bring himself to tell anyone the full truth of anything? Speaking in riddles and unknown phrases to protect his image of all- knowingness…_

She opened her eyes as a feeling she could not quite identify spread through her body, feeling it spread from her fingers to her toes, allowing goosebumps to rise on their way past bare skin. Looking to the man she fell in love with years ago, although she had not been ready to admit that singularly important fact to herself, she allowed all her worries to fall from her as he poured both of them a glass of Odgen’s finest. Raw power flowed throughout his bared arms, beneath that horrible tattoo that had ruled his life since he was but her own age. A symbol that would no doubt rule hers in not too long, branded upon her pale skin as if she were cattle.

Her lip curled as she walked behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist in order to rest on his belt, her cheek feeling him breathe in and out as it lay between his shoulder blades. His heartbeat seemed as if it were a bone drum announcing the start of the war, even though it had long ago begun before either of them were born. They stand like this for a solid minute, Hermione untucking the end of his button up from his trousers as he turned back to her unbuckling his own belt since her small fingers seemed to be having trouble. Roaming her hands up the muscles of his stomach, she reached up to kiss him only to share his firewhiskey that remained on his tongue.

Losing herself in the sensations of Severus, shedding their clothes all the way until the reached his bed, Hermione couldn’t help but think of Tom Riddle. Of all the magics he had known just as a teenager with only small years compared to others that had been in it all their lives, and how much knowledge he had gained since the ending of his school years. Severus hovered over her, her arms tight around his neck before her sharp nails led bleeding tracks from his trapezius muscles of his shoulders down to curl around his hip. The Dark Lord was the epitome of a cunning slytherin, all the traits of the house seemingly having been born straight into his blood. Ambition, resourcefulness, determination, leadership, self- preservation. Each of these had been bred into the man who was intent on conquering the world and life itself, but Slytherins also had a certain trait that concerned Hermione the most. 

_Loyalty_

It was an unspoken rule of thumb that members of Slytherin house looked after one another, and did what it took no matter the damage, to stick together. Despite their efforts to keep this trait within the confines of their own house, she had seen certain instances when observing them. Hermione had seen it with Draco, who considered her one of his own _people._ Much like Harry did. But it was the Dark Lord who worried her the most. Even with his word that he would not harm Harry, it was a deep nagging recurring thought in her mind that he would turn against her, because the truth of the matter was, she didn’t know who _he_ considered his people. He had no family that she knew of, and his Death Eaters were more like followers and though he did protect them, that alone did not speak of undeniable loyalty and devotion.

Everything Hermione did was to gain those two things from the man who seemed to become more unstable as the months wore on, and she could not know for certain that she had these things herself. His version of love, sure, but then again, love was not inherently linked and equal to loyalty and devotion. It was something that should absolutely be given freely to those who you loved, just like her and Severus, but it was all in the person who you never will fully understand or know that has different versions of the emotion. If they feel it at all through their whispered promises and fickle words.

Severus bit down into her neck deeply, a growl- like purr resonating deep within his throat that was amplified as Hermione sunk her canines in his neck in place of the bruises they had marked each other with. She lay on Severus’ chest afterwards with her hand resting on his cheek, his arms like bands around her waist and back. His breath leaving a cool spot on her heated skin from where his breath was directed, the slowness finally told of his sleep.

_A permanent symbol of their own version of devotion now marking them as forever each other’s._

~.O.~

_Hermione visited the Dark Lord before going on to Grimmauld Place, Arthur finally having been discharged and allowed to continue on home. The others had reluctantly asked her to cancel her trip to where they had thought she was visiting her parents for Yule break, and although she told them it would not be a problem she had been insistent for just a couple days before regrouping with the redheaded group of relieved children and wife._

_“It will be my life or death, sweet girl,” the Dark Lord caressed her face with cold hands, much reminiscent of the days of his ailing health before his resurrection. A familiar dark stone ring adorning his finger with it’s cold band branding the skin of her cheek, the very middle now boasting a small circular crack in the otherwise perfectly smooth triangle. “The boy must not get the prophecy before I do, or else he will learn of our entwined fates. Dumbledore has made him weak, we must get it now.”_

_Hermione looked to her master with a tilted head at his feverish tone, the madness of old seeping back into his voice could be heard. That slightly higher tone of voice that hid something beneath it when he spoke of the most coveted prophecy. The prophecy of which she had never asked of what it had foretold all those many years ago, only knowing that small bit which Severus had passed onto the Dark Lord before the deaths of the Potters. His information that had led to the orphaning of her best friend._

_“_ _The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… ”_

_She looked down to his bare feet only inches from her own, Nagini laying curled around her legs to soak in her miniscule heat, but at her master’s words she looked up to Hermione with a downturned chin. As if in sadness._

_“You will make sure he doesn’t get it won’t you, lovely girl?” His hands were now resting on her shoulders, his face slightly frantic. “My sweet lovely girl who brought me back to life. You are my good girl aren’t you, Hermione? You are not his?” He asked, “You are not the old man’s girl? Not the boy who has power over me. No. No you aren’t.” He answered his own question smiling with sharp white teeth at her in that soft way he always did. “You are my girl. My own girl.”_

_He took off that cracked ring, sliding it onto her own finger as a gift. Holding it up to his face as if admiring the golden band wrapped snugly around her slim own middle finger, magically fitting her own hand as opposed to his larger one._

_Hermione hesitantly asked him a question as she led him to sit down, “My Lord, are you alright? You seem out of sorts.”_

_He looked up to her from their joined hands, eyes slightly wide as if in surprise, “I am quite alright, my dear.” He himself seemed to pause in hesitation at this point, or simply gathering his thoughts as he continued clearer than before. “It seems as if my head is simply clouded after a bit of magic I just recently performed. Have you read of soul magic before, Hermione? Or of the Deathly Hallows composed within a supposed children’s story called Beetle and the Bard?”_

_She humored him as she allowed him to keep hold of her hand, his thumb absentmindedly stroked the soft skin between her thumb and pointer finger. “I can’t say that I have, My Lord.”_

_“You see my girl, I have made seven Horcruxes of various precious objects, one of which was the diary you found me in. It is my intent on restoring my soul to it’s former wholeness, in preparation of becoming the Master of Death. To which I will finally achieve my goal of becoming immortal.” His eyes once again obtained that faraway gleam to it as he continued, “With you at my side.”_

_With her at her side he says… will his wanting of her involve Severus as well? Will he grant her everything she wants to keep her at her side… giving him her own version of love and loyalty she is still not positively sure matches with his own?_

_Once again her head tilted as she looked to the Dark Lord in complete admiration for the power it must have taken him to perform the darker soul magic as many times as he had. But it was slightly disturbing as to what it must have done to his soul, even as he explained to her he must now restore his broken pieces into his own body and start anew. Apparently Horcruxes caused much more damage to one’s soul than simply splitting it he told her. But it had kept him alive thus far, but would have no use one he achieved his supreme goal._

_Hermione heard one word echoing through her head at the thought that splitting a soul was simply catastrophic to one’s psyche, sounding much like another dark man she knew: Obviously._


	25. 5th Year Part Seven

" _You are one of the people I never asked from God. But still, he gave you to me. I asked him why, he said, "Because he can fill your life like no one else can." "_

~.O.~

Hermione arrived via timed portkey to Grimmauld Place just two days after her conversation with the Dark Lord. In that limited time that they had spent together, the new knowledge that he had bestowed upon her first night back at Malfoy Manor constantly lurked in the recess of her mind. Although he had not brought up the topic after that first long conversation, he often looked to her with a searching look swimming in his eyes as if he did not know what she was thinking on the matter. She did not deign to bring up the topic either as there were simply _too many_ thoughts on the topic rather than none at all, and she could not bring herself to bring them up to him sporadically with no order at all. But he had resorted to probing her mind for her surface thoughts occasionally if her Occlumency shields had told her anything, notifying her to the gentle and out of character tickles she often felt in the back of her head when he thought she wasn't aware.

She also did not say anything further on the topic as to why Nagini had bitten Arthur after her first inquiry, to which the Dark Lord had said, "She lost her temper, she doesn't like being in dark places such as the Department of Mysteries anymore with all those years she spent away from me in exile. The dark and loneliness scares her now." She had not the energy, as much as she loathed herself for pushing it under the rug, for bringing it up any more with all the information on Horcruxes and the Deathly Hallows floating about her brain.

Horcruxes were one of the most horrible and catastrophic magics to be done to the soul. The splitting of one's magical core that could have the potential to destroy you utterly and entirely was something even the most educated, confident, and darkest witches or wizards would not attempt to accomplish no matter the glory. Or so Hermione had read on the limited information on the topic from the books Tom had given her to read before she left to return to her friends. But a sixteen year old boy had completed that feat many times over during the course of ten years, years in which he was twisted into something unrecognizable to the people who held him in high regard. Twisted and molded into a madman who had done something as unspeakable as attempting to kill an infant child, infinitely more unspeakable than the magic that had tangled him to begin with Hermione was of the mind to think. Seven horcruxes was once his goal, to split an already split soul even further until eventually nothing of the former intelligent and sane man remained.

She had asked him how it was possible for him to break into Harry's mind, and for the first time ever, she saw something like uncertainty cross his face. He didn't know.

As for the prophecy, even Severus was not privy to the whereabouts of it, nor why the Order has deemed it the time to begin protecting it on Dumbledore's orders. _How would he even know other than from Severus, who has said nothing to him of the matter, that it was in need of protecting in the first place?_ To Severus' limited knowledge, he simply knew that a few within even the Order knew where it was hidden so as to minimize those who could be captured for information and otherwise. But what Hermione was more inclined to believe was that while there may very well be a select few who knew where it was being held, Dumbledore and his trust issues did not allow for chances nor wiggle room regarding Severus' allegiances when he was the one to originally bring the first few sentences into the light directed by the Dark Lord. The fact that he had not brought up the fact of the prophecy to Dumbledore allowed for little questions, although he had entertained that perhaps there was another spy within the Dark Lord's circle. But even that was simply not probable, it had to be Dumbledore's all- knowingness coming into play once more.

Hermione continued into Grimmauld once it was revealed between the two muggle flats, her thoughts continuing to wander away from her as she stepped into an all too quiet household holding each of the Weasley children and several adults.

She thanked all the Gods of the world that the man had chosen to repair what he could of his existing soul, for the simple reason that he admitted he had made a mistake in dabbling in this powerful magic he had no concept as to what the long term consequences were. That his achievement of immortality may very well have to be in name alone if it was a choice between that or living the life he had for years before his previous body's death. The choices he had made in his youth being something that had led to his resorting to the life of a parasite. In addition, although Hermione had not been raised as or would call herself as particularly religious, she did give a brief thought as to what would happen should he never achieve his goals, the damage Tom had done to his soul must have a reckoning once he faced the gods who had dictated all humans must die at one time or another.

Her mind then took a left turn away from contemplating the validity of the Deathly Hallows on top of everything else as something else occurred to her out of the endless black of her thoughts, bringing back into the light once more something she so worried about more than anything else.

_Dumbledore had once said that those conceived of a love potion, as Tom Riddle Jr was once Merope Gaunt set her eyes on the muggle Tom Riddle Sr, that they could not grasp the notion of love. Could not feel something as fickle as the haunting only tragic emotion…_

_How wrong she thought he was…_

_She hoped… just as she hoped Tom's soul would live on to the ends of the earth as he wanted…_

The house was most probably within it's zone of silence due to Molly threatening her children not to disturb their recovering father who Hermione found sitting in the living room, talking to Sirius while the Christmas hat with a small puff at the end jiggled slightly with a jolliness she did not quite feel at the moment.

"Hermione!" The redheaded patriarch greeted her with a raspy voice, although his bright smile tinged with weariness was no doubt the best his body could conjure in it's healing exhaustion.

"Hello, Arthur." She said, bending down to hug him lightly around his shoulders taking care of the no doubt raw wound covered beneath snow white gauze upon his neck. Nodding to Sirius as she sat next to him while Mr. Weasley occupied the loveseat, she asked, "How are your potions tasting? I suggested to Professor Snape that he begin adding in mint, although he does seem to insist on keeping with efficiency over taste."

They both chuckle at her words as Hermione noticed how Sirius' eyebrow raised in her periphery, "It makes all the difference, thank you, Hermione. I have to ask though, how in the world did you manage to convince him? I know he can sometimes take issue with people trying to take over his potions."

She smiled slightly, "He has allowed me to assist once in a while after we had returned to Hogwarts after summer break, persistence helps as well once you have already proved yourself a decent enough potioneer to him."

Their short conversation was cut short as Molly bustled in from the kitchen with a tea tray boasting a steaming teapot and several colorful vials, relief coloring her face once she saw the curly haired girl.

"Oh, thank goodness you are here, my girl!" The mother said, grabbing Hermione in a quick hug before holding her at arms length with her hands resting a comfortable weight on the girl's shoulders. "I am glad you were able to come over earlier, Hermione. I do hope you will be able to get Harry out of the funk he seems to be in." She glanced to Sirius before looking back to Hermione with hopeful eyes, a frown creasing her forehead, "Sirius has even tried and simply nothing seems to be working on him, he won't talk to anyone that I have seen since he has been back."

Hermione smiled as best she could, knowing he most likely would not be in the best of moods since she had parted with him too quickly to speak with him once Dumbledore was informed of Arthur's condition. Too quick to speak in private what he was thinking of himself in light of his possession by the Dark Lord.

"Don't worry Molly, I will get him talking again. Just like I have just told Arthur, I have experience dealing with difficult men." She turned to ascend the stairs as Mrs. Weasley twisted back to her husband with a quizzical expression once he reigned in his low chuckles.

_Sirius having apparently resumed his silent watchful presence as he had done over her as well as Severus whenever they had been within the walls of Grimmauld Place. Hermione continued to ignore the rudeness and confusion of it all for the moment. Harry was her concern at this point._

Encountering Ron as he was walking back down the stairs, they paused in the middle as she asks him how Harry has been. His brows furrowed just like a miniature version of his mother, Hermione thought for not the first time, "He's sleeping. He seems to always be sleeping since we left Hogwarts. And he hasn't ate since that day."

Hermione was now the once to crease the gap between her eyebrows, knowing the already skinny boy couldn't exactly afford to be losing any weight in the first place. "I'll get him to eat. Has he said anything at all to you? Your mum said he hasn't spoken at all."

He got a certain look staining his face that she had seen directed at the darker headed boy many times before, and yet never thought she would see it coming from the third member of their usually small trio. _Uneasiness._ "He hasn't said much, but I've never seen him like this, 'Mione. It's even worse than Cedric."

She nodded her head in assent as she pushed past the taller boy at his words, continuing into their shared room despite him calling her name before clicking the door shut once the light illuminated Harry's place in the room. She simply was not in the mood to deal with his _uneasiness._ Carefully making her way to the bed where he laid with his back to her, the cat eyes she had acquired years ago came in handy in dodging the various clothing items and quidditch books littering the floor. Without saying a word, she listened to his breathing for a moment as she sat on the edge of his bed, her hip just touching his back before she wiggled her hand underneath his arm while her feet kicked off her shoes. Resting her hand on his stomach as she placed her head on the pillow just behind his head, his breathing remaining the same steady rhythm as it had been since she had entered the room. He was awake, although he knew better than to try and feign sleep in the face of her usual stubbornness and patience as he squeezed the hand laying on his front, offering silent comfort.

"Hi, Harry," Hermione whispered as she closed her eyes, fitting the rest of her body to his by bending her legs behind his own, getting comfortable for their conversation that would most likely be long and punctuated by silences as he gathered his own scattered thoughts and emotions. Finding the right words to give a voice to an unnameable feeling.

They lay like that for many minutes, time in the darkness seemingly having no meaning when in silence until Harry's quiet voice broke it.

"Hi, 'Mione."

"Do you want to talk about it? About what you saw, felt?"

Harry once again lapsed back into his silence as she predicted, until he finally spoke once again after heaving a big sigh Hermione felt in the cheek that rested on his back, "I've been having dreams since the summer. About Voldemort's snake. It has been searching for something but it thinks in a different way than we do and I can't tell exactly what it wants. Or where it is."

_Find where the prophecy is hidden, dear girl._

_But what am I to do, my Lord when all the boy knows is what Nagini knows?_

"Was that the first time you dreamt about it? In the summer?"

He hesitated, "No, not even Dumbledore. But then again, even if I had wanted to this year, he would have just run in the other direction. Acted like I was nothing but a ghost he couldn't hear or see." Hermione squeezed him a little tighter as she heard the bitterness within his voice. Although she might not have liked Dumbledore much, she knew that him ignoring Harry since the beginning of term was a significant blow as the boy considered him one person within his rag-tag group he could call somewhat of a family. "I dreamt about her last year before the World Cup when she was with him _._ I didn't want to worry anyone, so I didn't bring it up, but I've had dreams after that first time that weren't real but I was still _in_ the snake." Harry briefly thought of mentioning one in which a girl with eerily similar hair to Hermione's own had thought to ask Voldemort to pet his terrifying snake, but then did not. It was an absolutely ludicrous observation that had no merit even if they both did have the same silver toe ring gracing their right foot, to which he could now feel pressing coldly into the arch of his own foot.

"How did you know this one was real? It could have been one of those ones that weren't real."

"The ones that weren't real I could control what the snake did, but the others the snake's body made the decisions while I watched whatever she did. I could do nothing no matter how hard I tried."

_I could do nothing while I tore into the closest father figure I had's throat… tasting the blood wash over my tongue and wish for more…_

They were silent once again for several minutes before Harry turned over onto the side of his body that Hermione had been holding onto, his previous tension having bled from his body at their small talk as a sort of sleepy fog descended upon them in the darkness surrounding them. All the while, she searched for the words to bring up the topic both of them knew they needed to talk about, but for the first time in her life, she did not know how to do it. How to word the most delicate question. And even though she knew it wasn't possible, Hermione felt like Harry could see her through the blackness that surrounded her as clearly as she could him, and not simply the twisty curly outline of her head. His large hand not very different from Severus' with his long skinny fingers coming up to rest on her neck, his palm feeling her steady pulse that always seemed faster than his own, keeping him grounded when his mind felt just on the edge of drowning.

"Do you think I am possessed, Hermione?" His hand was like a hot brand on her neck.

_He always did know when to speak first, always knew what they both need as much as she did..._

She grabs his hand, pulling it to her lips to kiss it where his own pulse rested as she answered his question, "No, Harry. I do not think you are possessed. And I would like to think that I know you enough as your best friend, and your sister, when you are being possessed. That I know you better than anyone else."

The dark haired boy watched as the place where Hermione's eyes should have began to glow, a dark amber color surrounding a cat- like slit almost imperceptible in the darkness that would have matched her own eye color perfectly had they been side by side. She twisted back around on her own side, pulling his arm around her waist as she felt they were at the end to their conversation, everything that needed to be brought into the open and off Harry's chest completed.

"Get some sleep. If Ron hadn't have told me you weren't eating your stomach would have by now with all it's growling, we can get something when everyone else goes to bed." She feels him tighten his arm around her, pulling her closer to his chest, "If you want to, maybe talk to Ginny. She knows better than anyone what being possessed by the Dark Lord actually does to a person, what it feels like."

Harry not for the first time contemplated why Hermione called the most feared man in wizarding Britain by the name of which his followers most commonly used, although her explanation long ago of how _Voldemort_ instills too much fear and _He- Who- Must- Not- Be- Named_ was simply obnoxious flits through his head. He shakes his head slightly in his all around scattered thoughts, casting away any mentions of Voldemort away and concentrates on the girl in his arms.

"Why do your eyes glow, 'Mione?"

She smiles widely in the dark, "Because I'm special. And I have secrets, maybe one day I'll tell them to you."

He laughs quietly despite his sudden unease, and Hermione silently rejoices in that fact that she had been able to bring him away from his thoughts pertaining to his humanity and free will.

_One day her empty words and promises might not be enough to mend his broken mind and soul…_

"Yes you are, and yes you will even if I have to pry them from you." For the first time in days, Harry laughs in genuine glee as Hermione's tired giggles filled their small space while his cold fingertips danced across the bare skin of her ribcage to which he had lifted his shirt to get at.

~.O.~

Hermione notated Mr. Weasley's progress in a little notebook as per Severus' instructions after changing his bandages. The antivenin for Nagini's venom being something entirely new to being tested on someone she had bit, Severus had instructed her to note every change in the Weasley patriarch. She herself did not count as a subject as every drop of the beautiful snake's venom had been drained from her system during the Dark Lord's resurrection ritual.

"You would make a very good healer, Hermione," Arthur told her as she filled the notebook with her loopy handwriting, making a nice contrast to Severus' own loopy yet sharp letters. "Have you given thought to what you will do once you kids have graduated Hogwarts? When the war has ended of course." His voice was getting significantly better the farther along the scars along his neck healed up nicely. Hermione felt her mood drop a fraction at his very optimistic words that the side of the Light would end up victorious.

She smiled down as she completed her annotations though, setting the book aside before picking up her now cold tea. Holding it in both hands for a moment to allow it to steam up with a non-verbal heating charm, she answered his question as several of the other children in the house milled around in the kitchen making soft sounding thumps on the wooden floor just in the next room.

"Professor Snape has offered me an Potions apprenticeship if I would like to continue in the field," she paused before continuing, thinking on rather or not to reveal information even if the man in question had yet to broach the subject with her. "He has taught me so much outside of potions already, but I am not completely sure he intends to stay at Hogwarts once the war is over. Either way, I might choose to follow him regardless if he would still consent to teaching me. His mind is amazing even if he lacks a filter for his temper, as you had noted just the other day."

Arthur Weasley studied the girl his youngest son had been friends with for years with a smile on his face, thinking a thought that had occurred to him several times before. That the young girl had such a loving personality that even though Severus was perfectly cordial to himself, having seen the man's blatant contempt towards certain others that even the curly haired girl could cut through like a knife through butter more than ninety- five percent of the time.

"That is great, Hermione. You are a very loyal girl." The fatherly man smiled slightly at her, "But why do you suspect Severus will not continue teaching at Hogwarts? I can't imagine he has said anything to one of his students before broaching it with the Headmaster."

Hermione paused in her next sip of tea, mentally kicking herself for revealing too much information that no doubt revealed how highly she thought of Severus, or how well. The thought had occurred to her many times before, that if there had been no war Severus would have never chosen to be a professor under Dumbledore, and if by some miracle the Light did indeed succeed he would choose to be on his way. Cut ties with the Hogwarts students if not completely the staff, Minerva in particular who he seemed to be surprisingly good friends with. Her mind scrambled for words as she confusedly looking at Arthur, "I just always assumed that he began teaching to occupy a strategic position as a spy for Headmaster Dumbledore and Voldemort. That it wasn't what he would have chosen right out of Hogwarts had he had a choice, besides, working with him and spending as much time with him as I do I have always thought he would have been better suited to potions research." She shook the small book she had been taking her notes in, "Or opening his own apothecary."

Arthur once again smiled as brightly as he could, patting his nurse on the hand, "You have a very intelligent and observant mind, my dear. I dare say you would be much suited to being his apprentice."

A light thump following a low string of curses from behind the kitchen door clued Hermione into the fact that the eavesdroppers she had heard with their ears to the door were finally at an end to their nosiness. Excusing herself from Arthur to see who exactly was being rude enough to resort to listening through doors to her conversations rather than simply asking her themselves, Hermione saw that Ginny was glaring down to Ron who held his foot in his hand as he sat on the wooden bench running the length of the room. Harry sat on the other side alongside Sirius with a sheepish expression.

Hermione raised her eyebrow when Ron looked up to her with red ears and a deer- in- the- headlights mask plastered upon his face. This expression then bleeding into incredicity, she just knew exactly what he was going to say no doubt to what they had heard when butting their ears into things she was not yet ready to reveal.

"Have you bloody well gone mad, 'Mione?!" He dropped his foot that Ginny no doubt had stepped on in support of Hermione's decisions as she always did, "You really want to spend five more years with that bloody evil bat just to get your apprenticeship? There are loads more masters you could go with to become a Potions Master, and you choose to get it from him?"

Hermione raised an eye over her mug as she sipped her tea calmly, noting a brief glance between the two other teens and adult in the room. Out of all the information her friend must have heard, the fact that she was on her way to choosing Severus as her teacher for years out of Hogwarts was the one bit he focused on.

"No, Ronald. There are not loads of Potion Masters to choose from, and I would rather apprentice with one who I already know regardless." She turned to the others, "Did all of you choose to be rude too and listen to other people's private conversations?"

Ginny and Harry shook their heads rapidly from side to side, knowing that Hermione took manners very seriously. Sirius simply continued to watch her in silence. Like always.

"Why don't you hate him?" Ron asked her, his voice going lower in true confusion as Hermione's ears rang with the deja vu of it. Harry had once asked her the same question before long ago, and her answer had been enough for him to understand, but Hermione knew the same explanation would not be sufficient enough for the boy in front of her. He would never understand no matter her reasons. She knew that once their relationship became common knowledge in most likely the next few years at the end to the war, as she knew there would be no other man for her for as long as she lived, he still would never comprehend loving someone as much as she loved Severus. It simply wasn't possible.

_I would very much like to see you in a white wedding dress…_

Hermione suddenly remembered her mother's words to her as she sent her off into hiding, and she became saddened at the thought that she hadn't seen or spoken to her mother in a very long time. Too long even if it had only been months.

She sat her mug down beside Ron with a resolute thump, "I don't hate him for the exact reasons that you do."

_Because he is a Slytherin man who bleeds the very traits of his house… just as you are intent on doing… and is unapologetically himself…_


	26. 5th Year Part Eight

" _Love is giving someone the power to destroy you… but trusting them not to."_

~.O.~

Hermione sat on the counter of Grimmauld Place looking up to Severus who stood in front of her, having just told her the Headmaster had ordered him to give Harry Occlumency lessons. The hands behind his neck played with his hair absently.

"Does the Dark Lord know of this?"

He raises on dark eyebrow at her, "He has been informed. And he has also ordered me to teach Potter to close his mind to outside attacks to the best of my ability." It was then Hermione's turn to then raise her own brow in imitation of his own actions, prompting him to continue with his explanation before she spilled into confusion, "You know just as well as I that in order to properly learn Occlumency you must weaken the mind in order to build up stronger defenses. The Dark Lord's hope is that this newfound bond between him and the boy is something he can explore without him knowing, the extent of their all confounding mind- link. If he somehow manages to build up decent enough defenses to lock him out, he has every confidence in you to find out any useful information from the boy."

Hermione pinches the skin on the back of his neck and twists while nodding at his words, knowing how fun he had in underhandedly disparaging Harry's intellectual capabilities without her holding his hand. It had often been on her mind of the connection between the Dark Lord and Harry, never completely leaving her thoughts even when occupied with other things. If it had something to do with the prophecy the Dark Lord so wanted held within his pale hands. Such as Severus' large ones rubbing up and down the length of her thighs as he did in this moment in an effort to pull her from her tendencies to worry about anything and everything all hours of the day.

Her breath stained his lips as he watched her eyes flicker between his own eyes and mouth, cocking his head to the side, "You trust me, girl?" he asked, although it was phrased as more of an assertion than an actual question.

Her smiled up at him slightly confusedly, her thoughts having successfully been clouded with lust for the man who held her in his arms. "I love you, Severus. I think it is kind of implied that I trust you after everything we have been through."

She gazed up to him with such simple truth as he looked down to her young face, Severus couldn't help but love his girl all that much more for granting him such a complete trust as no one else had ever given him before.

"Then trust me when I say we will find what the connection between Potter and the Dark Lord means, what exactly the prophecy means."

Hermione smiled against his lips, "I know we will, Severus." She said before firmly pressing her mouth to his in confirmation of her belief in him, and further clouding her mind with thoughts of him and not war time plots and questions.

Severus pulled her to him with his fingers digging into her pelvic bone, causing her to gasp loudly as her chest pressed flush against his tightly buttoned up one. Her hips bumping against his which set off a line of fire moving slowly along his spine in an anticipatory sort of pleasure, his manly length hardening between their bodies. Just as Hermione's hand slipped beneath his trousers, wrapping around him with the thought of being caught making their little tryst all that much more enticing, they heard light footsteps on the other side of the kitchen door. The girl groaned lowly against his mouth, echoing his silent thoughts as she jumped away from him to a respectable distance away. He admired her slightly heavy breathing and stained cheeks as she calmly as could be with a shaking hand slid him a cup of steaming tea just as Sirius padded into the room.

"I will get Harry for you, Professor." She told him, choosing to once again ignore the fact that Sirius was looking all too closely between herself and the dark man she left leaning against the counter beside the teapot.

Sirius saw a perfect opportunity to finally get to end of the mystery that was the relationship between Hermione Granger and Severus Snape. For years he had been watching, waiting to figure out how exactly a man such as Snivellus had become so close to his godson's best friend. The beautiful girl who was practically the sister Lily and James never had the chance of conceiving. Now, as he watched the other man stare blankly at him, he sniffed the air and inhaled simply _Hermione_ permeating the air around the other man.

"I can smell her all over you," he growled lowly in his chest, the scent of female arousal all too appealing to his animagus form that had a tendency to take over at times. As was the price in becoming part animal. An itch forming beneath his skin that could only be scratched by two things, finding his own female that surely wasn't the one whose smell was still within his nose, or clawing the man in front of him whose own scent could still be scented to the lowest degree under the girl's. _Tainting the pureness of it all…_ It appealed to the territorial side of him, the one that called to protect those who he considered his own even if they did not return the sentiment. The simple fact that Harry considered the girl his family automatically called for her to be under his familial protection regardless of anything else.

Long ago, when he had talked over the man and girl's close relationship with Remus, the werewolf simply told him to let it go. But he could not if the darker man insisted on walking around smelling in such a way as he was now. Flaunting an absolutely revolting relationship with a young girl who was supposed to be under his charge. It mattered little that they both seemed to wear masks of emotion he had only ever seen once more before years ago, an expression that graced the likes of Lily and James Potter whenever they looked to the other when they thought no one else was watching.

Severus continued his silence at Sirius' simple observation, knowing full well that Hermione's scent was no doubt clinging to every inch of him with her potent scent he himself could smell no matter how used to it he became.

"Trying to rock the cradle, Snivellus?" Sirius tried goading the man out of his stoic silence, his temper slowly rising as he got no reaction. "Wanting to tell your other Death Eater mates about how you are corrupting Harry Potter's best friend right beneath his nose?" His face was flushed red around the parts of his beard that was not covering his cheeks, "Do you really think she loves you? How could a young thing like that love someone as old and horrible looking as you?"

As Sirius continued to get no rise out of him he tried a different tactic, and if his suspicions were correct, he knew exactly how the other man would react even if he was the epitome of calm and cool in this instance. It was exactly something that would set even himself off at the merest hint of it. His wand slid from his holster on his forearm. Severus sliding his own in retaliation within the same moment he saw the other man's begin to peak out from his sleeve, and stood as he waited for the next words to come out of his mouth that would no doubt be just as ridiculous as his previous attempts to disparage him. But the dark man was wrong, utterly wrong in this assumption as the man turned the subject on himself in all the absolute right words that would cause Severus to live in a sea of fire veiling his vision.

"I heard what you were doing with her, you think she'd let me make her gasp like that? Rub against her like the dog that I am?" The Azkaban escapee's grin was slightly wolvish, even as inside his head warning bells began ringing throughout his little goading of a man who already hated him once he saw the already still man stop breathing. His chest going as still as the rest of him once his eyes began to glow, thus Sirius was filled with silent steadily climbing horror and absolute terror one he caught sight of the spy's teeth and fingernails sharpening to points right before his eyes.

_He had gone too far… familial possessive tendencies held no coin when put up against the call of a male protecting his female's virtue… and his own instincts to rip out the one's throat who had threatened what was their's..._

Severus resisted the urge to shift into his soul form, as if that were his true body rather than the human skin he now inhabited. Much like what Sirius was feeling in response to the threat he had created against himself. A feline- like growl rising within Severus' chest, he stalked the other man across the room until he cornered himself with a wall at his back and a territorial angry male in front of him. Light footsteps descending the stairs followed by heavier ones just in time was the last straw to Severus regaining his control, the scent of his girl getting closer to him calming him enough to pull back his clawed hands from Sirius' submissively bared throat. Though Sirius could see that they had hesitated slightly even then.

He rasped his only words to the dog cowering in front of him before the two children entered the room, "You ever speak in such a way about her again, and I will let her rip out your throat herself."

Sirius utterly believed the truth behind those last words, his eyes flicking towards the girl who had paused momentarily with Harry in the doorway as it was obvious they had interrupted yet another argument between the two older men. Although, he could not see the small girl harming even a fly, he could not disparage the truth and promise in Severus' voice. The children entered the room having no idea how close they were to simply encountering Severus simply standing above the bloody form of an eviscerated body.

Hermione showed no concern as to her own being as she closed the few steps it took to stand beside Severus, blocking his clawed hands from Harry's view. Her little hands grabbed those black nailed hands with no hesitation while Sirius quickly composed his body once again, noting the way the girl's nose flared slightly at the scent of fear staining the air along with her eyes glowing in much a similar way to Severus' still anger filled ones.

_He had forgotten… she was an animagus too… albeit a small one, but even the smallest of creatures need only the sharpest nails and powerful legs to reach a man's more vulnerable parts…_

"Everything alright in here?" Harry asked, keeping his position in the doorway.

The Black family heir ducked away from the couple and closer to his godson, airily lying his arse off as he straightened his immaculate coat, "Everything good in here, Harry."

Harry looked at his godfather with a shadow of disbelief crossing his face before turning back to Hermione and the professor, and as he was so used to seeing their closeness, found no fault with it this day in such a way that Sirius did.

"Hermione said you wanted to see me, Professor Snape?" he had to keep his manners after all no matter the situation, Hermione insisted upon it.

From then on, Sirius took special care to avoid the more temperamental of animagi inhabiting his home for the duration of Yule break, and felt absolute relief once the both of them eventually left to return to Hogwarts. Though the road had been rough and sharp, he now learned his lesson about letting his own feelings and jealousies of missed opportunities he could have had rule his life. Remus had been right in his assertions. _As always_. His sole purpose from now until the war was over, was to take care that Harry survived even at the expense of himself.

~.O.~

Hermione's bracelet, for the first time since gifting Severus and herself with their own connected _Protean_ charms, began to heat up when Hermione was on the brink of sleep just days after Severus' encounter with Sirius who had been avoiding the both of them as if they had the plague. Her love would not tell her of what had caused him such anger at the other man, but knowing how the other man could light Severus' anger like no other, she did not even hazard a guess as to what it had been this time. Getting up silently with only the soft rustle of sheets indicating her midnight venture, Ginny's low breathing remained unchanged as Hermione pulled on her dressing gown. Closing the door behind her, she cast a light _lumos_ to reveal Severus' one-word message.

_Downstairs_

The word faded until only her initial remained once again as she quickly made her way down the stairs, bare feet making no sound as it stepped lightly on the thickly carpeted wood. Severus stood in the dark as in mimicking a spectre, dressed in shadow black robes marking him as the Death Eater that he was, although he was absent his bone mask that gave way to expose the anxious look in his eye completely uncharacteristic of him. She could see only the barest hints on what he felt in his tight shoulders even with her enhanced vision as he suddenly grabbed her to push her lower back against the couch he stood next to. Then proceeding to kiss her until she was dizzy and short of breath before pulling back to cage her in his arms, his hands sliding to either side of her hips in order to grip the couch back and place his forehead against her own.

Her own hands ran up the length of his arms to rest on his shoulders, gripping the loose fabric of the robes, "What is wrong, Severus?"

"The Dark Lord has ordered us to free the prisoners residing within Azkaban," his voice was low as can be while his eyes remained closed, Hermione entering that certain state of complete stone- like stillness where she could feel every pulse point in her body.

_He has truly gone mad this time… truly mad…_

"For what reason?" her voice choked out, Neville suddenly coming to the forefront of her mind. Bellatrix Lestrange and several others involved in the breaking of the boy's parent's minds currently resided within the prison, and she just knew it would break something in the sweet boy if this foolish plan were to be played out. "He has promised that this war will not result in the same casualties as the last, what could he possibly accomplish in freeing those horrible people? The people who might as well have _killed_ Neville's parents?"

Severus looked at her with something like pity in his eyes, and Hermione just knew how naive and foolish she herself sounded in that moment. How her hopful tone was that of a child's and not the learned woman she was becoming. It had always been a half- hearted hope that the Dark Lord would make good on his word that he would not result to the previous violence over a decade ago, but even she knew how impatient he could still become when confronted with something he could not get his hands on. His main goal at this point being the obtaining of the prophecy, his actions regarding Arthur and his wounds were the epitome of impatience and recklessness. Just as his actions in deciding to try his very best in killing an infant with no magical power had been his undoing all those years ago.

She interrupted Severus before he could tell her himself how exactly like a child's her words sounded, "I know how that sounds, you don't need to tell me. It was stupid."

He nodded slightly before answering her question, "I believe that he means to simply build up his resources and regain those who were under his control back where they are exactly in that position once more. Under his control, and if need be, they will be there in case he does need to resort to force to find the prophecy."

Hermione breathed deeply through her nose, "He honestly puts way too much stock in prophecies, Severus." She paused in thought before continuing, "Do you believe that Bellatrix will be a problem? With how high her position with the Dark Lord had been, do you think his attachment to her will change our positions in his circle?"

He chuckled softly, drawing up her chin to look in his eyes from where they had been focused on his frock buttons that she still loved running her fingers over just as much as when she had been a child. "I believe that you have taken that most coveted position from her, girl. If anything, I believe that her severe obsession with the Dark Lord will cause issue with _her_ position rather than ours if I remember her temperament correctly. She can at times be so consumed with _love_ for the Dark Lord that I would hazard he would not take kindly to her disparaging your character or place within his heart. In any case, I would think the love he now has for you overshadows what he once felt for a woman he has not seen since her mind had been slightly more sane that I am sure it is now."

Hermione chuckled at his words, the sound becoming caught in her throat as he moved her chin up further in order to lick the length of her neck as he had want to do whenever he sought to distract her from her worries. Which was becoming all too often, although she could not bring herself to complain.

_Using all the necessary wiles within his arsenal to distract her as a true Slytherin would…_

"So, you admit now I _am_ the one that has protected us by gaining the Dark Lord's love? That it was a necessary evil." It had weighed on Severus' mind she knew that she had bound the powerful man to her in an altogether different way than he had ever been before, she knew it bothered him the way their master touched his love, even as he stayed silent with impassive ever- watchful eyes.

Severus brought up the hand that held the stone ring the Dark Lord had given her, placing it right before his lips to allow his breath to wash over the smooth surface as he continued to run their conversation into a morbid route. "Ever since the Dark Lord has been resurrected, you have been the only thing that has kept me from being dead and buried in the ground I am sure." The gifted ring seemed to pulse with his words, the crack it had boasted when it was gifted to her having somehow mended itself. "We both know by now that he has never been as sane as he is now with you guiding him along, exploiting the love he has for you. Even if at time he falls back on impulsiveness."

Hermione was silent as she ripped her hand from him only to clasp the other behind his neck in an all too familiar pose, her throat feeling as if it would close up forever with the thought of a dead and glassy eyed Severus who held such passion in his stoic body. Such as her love for him, she could never imagine what her life would be absent his person from only such a short time together, as opposed the hundred or so more years they could have together. Even with this suffocating feeling surrounding her heart, she did have to admit a certain satisfaction in the obvious joy in which he had said his previous words of her manipulations concerning the Dark Lord.

"I love you, Severus. More than anything."

He purred his sentiments back into her ear, "I love you too, girl."

All the while, as the two loves wrapped themselves around each other for a stolen moment in the darkness, the ring upon Hermione's slim finger seemed to pulse in happiness, basking in the happiness of the man and woman.

..

All the while, as Hermione and Severus talk in secret whispers and exchange nighttime kisses, Sirius Black sat obliviously within the kitchen in Grimmauld Place, contemplating his thoughts.

Severus left to finally get what sleep he could before the early Order meeting in the morning, knowing that he would need to take care to mention the impending breakout, knowing he would need as much rest as possible to deal with the blowup that would no doubt occur. Although Hermione abhorred the thought of breaking out the volatile Death Eaters from Azkaban and would have rather hoped the side of the light would be able to prevent the escape, she had to admit any attempts to do so would fail. Even as the Dark Lord had decided against using the soul suckers as trusted allies in result of them disobeying orders with Harry during the summer to not hold grudges, he made a leap of faith to allowing their discretion in turning the other way in regards to the breakout.

In her distracted mind, it wasn't until she had already procured a glass and water that she smelled the male sitting behind her, watching. Flinching just a bit while still facing the sink with the glass to her lips, she turned to face Sirius who sat beneath the one lit sconce that casted a yellow glow behind him as if this moment were a dream. Hermione silently berated herself for once again letting her guard down.

_It was happening way too much lately… my mind is scattered too many places…_

She tried her best to act unaffected, "What are you doing sitting in the dark like that, Sirius? You just about made me jump out of my skin."

He smiles slightly, "I find that hard to believe, Hermione." He continued when he saw her confused tilt of the head, "You don't seem like the type of girl to be caught off guard easily. Being that when you are around someone like Severus every day, most of the day, with his so ever observant and all knowingness you must be used to being held to a higher observational standard. I've never seen you rattled about anything regardless."

Hermione raised an eyebrow to where their conversation was going, still not knowing why exactly he was sitting quietly in the dark hours after midnight had already passed.

Sirius paused briefly before continuing into a line of thought Hermione never thought she would hear from the man, "You are a very smart girl, Hermione but I have no idea what you see in Severus." He held up a hand to halt the slight frowning between her brows and opening mouth that no doubt would tell him he had no place in question her decisions, nor exactly how he had come by that information. Although, she now had an inkling as to what Severus had not told her about. For one of his reasons or another. "But Harry seems to trust your judgement on everything, and from what I have seen doesn't seem the least bit phased as to how you interact with your _professor_. So, I will trust your judgement in your private matters, not that you need it in the least as I do honestly believe you can take care of your own interests. When the time comes that your relationship gets out, I will help support you in any way I can. Not that many people would care about my opinion on the matter in the overall scheme of things either way."

The young girl was silent for a solid minute in stunned and flabbergasted dumbfoundedness, at a loss for words. Until a small familiar smirk lit her lips and dropped all pretenses as to the nature of her and Severus' relationship, wondering what exactly Severus had told the man to make him spin in a total one- eighty. "Does this little speech have anything to do with your and his argument the other day? Or why you are not talking to Severus? He refused to tell me what was said, and you seemed to be a bit _rattled_ when Harry and I interrupted you two." She conveniently neglected to mention that Severus' claws were a minutae away from being embedded into the Black heir's throat.

She watched as the man who Severus had hated for twenty years gulped, his Adams apple going up then falling back into place as the sudden smell of anxiety wafted towards her. Sirius could finally see how exactly Severus' words of allowing Hermione to tear out his throat herself could very possibly not have been a bluff, if her previously sharpened non- threatening canines told him anything.

"Severus has made it very clear that you care very much for each other, and that I have no business sticking my nose into your relationship." Hermione's smirk turned into a wry grin at his nod to his own Padfoot tendencies, "But, for Harry's sake, I thought I could at least speak to you and clear the air."

Her face softened once he said this, knowing that even if she doubted anything of his previous statements, she knew he wouldn't bring Harry up if he didn't absolutely mean what he was saying.

"Harry is like my brother, his opinion is the only one that matters to me most of all. But thank you for trying."

He smiles sadly, telling a realization he had come to after having the utter crap scared out of him. "After everything I have done to damage that man and make his life a living hell when we were in school, the least I can do is maybe help the only other person in this world that he obviously seems to love."

The room was dead silent around them as they looked to each other, finally at an agreement as to who actually kept them all together.

~.O.~

Once they were back at Hogwarts, it was then time to begin Harry's Occlumency lessons with Severus as Dumbledore had instructed.

"Why exactly are you coming with me, 'Mione?" Harry asked her as they made their way down to the dungeons.

"Because you don't have the best track record with Professor Snape, Harry. It seems you just can not keep your temper in check, and I will be there to make sure you do so that he does not kick you out of the lessons you so desperately need for the sole purpose of your stubborn headedness getting in the way of allowing you to block your mind."

He pouts at her, "I don't need a babysitter. And he starts it." She gives him a look that causes his cheeks to flush, "Anyway, what makes you think he will let you stay while we are doing whatever we are going to do?"

" _Occlumency,_ Harry. It's called Occlumency for the last time. And he will let me stay since, as Ron had eavesdropped on private information, because I will become his apprentice in just a few years. He has to let me butt into his affairs. Especially ones I would have learned about regardless of whether or not he kicks me out anyway, and he is aware of that fact." Hermione laughs at him, tugging on his ear.

As they walk into Severus' private office, they see two chairs facing each other in front of the wall of the rarer potions ingredients he dares not place in the student's storage cupboard. The man in question rose an eyebrow from where he stood once he allowed them entrance, not having known she had intended on tagging along to his lessons with her best friend.

_The silly man, he should have expected me to intervene in his and Harry's business… her two most important men with monumental tempers that had the potential to boil over into absolute mayhem…_

She smiles brightly at him before she plops into the comfy chair behind his desk, _his_ chair to which Harry's own eyes widened in surprise. Her chin resting on her hands propped up on the desk by her elbows as she awaits the potentially disastrous lesson to begin.

Severus sighs heavily in assent to her actions, "Sit down, Potter." He points to one of the other chairs in the room that sat close enough for two people's knees to touch. Harry does so only after blinking once more at Hermione who he had no idea was comfortable enough with the Potions Master to overtake his personal chair, despite all Hermione's veiled to not- so- veiled assurances that she indeed had every right to do so.

Severus began their lesson by pulling his wand from the inner pocket of his robes, Harry tensing momentarily before glancing at Hermione who was still watching them. As she shook her head no to stay his own hand hovering over the wand hanging from his pocket, Severus withdrew several silvery strings of memory that was neither liquid nor gas from his temple. Gently coaxing each strand from his wand into a pensive until he was satisfied with the memories now locked within his brain for want of a precaution, knowing that in terms of Harry Potter, accidental magic may just as well be intentional.

"Girl, the cabinet if you will." Severus instructed Hermione to levitate the delicate bowl out of the way of prying minds, "Then test Potter's defenses. If he has any." He then turned back towards the chair she had vacated once she had placed the pensive out of the way and took her seat before Harry.

Harry looked at her questioningly as she pulled her wand out of her arm holster, resting it on her knee while she explains to Harry that she will be probing any natural walls or defenses he may have. Knowing that Severus was just delaying the inevitable of diving into the other Gryffindor's mind.

"When did you learn Occlumency?" The skinny boy asked her.

She then replied, "Around the same time I became an animagus." Her devilish grin allowed for a chuckle at his utterly caught out expression for not knowing such a thing about his best friend, gracefully placing her fingers lightly on left right temple and the tip of her wand to the right of his head.

" _Legilimens!"_

Diving into his mind, Hermione found the image of a dirty black dog with it's rib cage standing out noticeably beneath it's long fur, shifting onto it's hind quarters to become an equally dirty and anorexic looking tattooed covered man with his Azkaban number written upon his skin.

..

Harry left his first lesson with Professor Snape with a splitting headache, Hermione gently rubbing his temples as they made their way back up to Gryffindor Tower. They walked slowly as to not disrupt the small amount of relief from Harry's pounding head to slip away along with his curly headed friend's small boned and completely talented fingers.

"Did you feel like your head was splitting open after your lessons?" he asked her.

Her lips curled up slightly, continuing her ministrations. "It just comes with the territory, Harry. Having someone root around in your mind for more than a few minutes at a time, no matter how gently they do it, eventually you start to feel some effect of it. You wouldn't have felt Professor Snape at all if I had not prepped you before, he subtle as can be but still is not immune to the laws of magic no matter how hard he tries at times."

He sighed heavily, once more her praising words of the professor going completely over his head as he was simply too used to it, knowing he would have to resort to this kind of treatment for as long as it took for him to block his mind.

_Know he knew why they only had one lesson a week…_

"What is your animagus form, Hermione?" he asked, his hands that had been framing her's dropping to look back to her.

She began smiling big enough to warrant suspicion as her hands hugged his neck from where she stood behind him, causing him to stop walking lest she strangle him unintentionally. _Or intentionally._ "Do you want to see?"

"You're not going to turn into a lion are you?"

She laughed at him as she crouched on the stone floor of the hallway beside him, slowly shrinking until her human body yielded to that of her white fox. Stretching in intimidation of Crookshanks, she yawned hugely as her front paws extended before her, hind quarters and tail drawing up to point into the air. Harry laughed as he bent down to Hermione's urgings to be picked up, placing her paws on the side of his legs and furiously making cat- like biscuits until he brought her up to hold to like you would an infant.

"You're so tiny, 'Mione."

She yipped once, bumping her wet nose on his before licking beneath his chin as they continued on to meet Ron before dinner. The redhead starred in confusion at Harry as he walked into the red and golden clad room with a white animal he then sat on the couch next to the other boy. Crawling up behind his head, Hermione placed her paws on top the fiery strands and glanced over his forehead to cock her head to the side.

Going cross- eyed as he looked up to the white animal basically laying on his head, "Where's 'Mione? And what is this animal standing on top my head, Harry?"

~.O.~

There were not back to Hogwarts a week before the morning Prophet reported on the breakout of several known and convicted Death Eaters from Azkaban. Hermione slid the paper over to Harry and Ron who relied on her subscription to the utter rubbish they report on half the time, and looked down several people to her left. Watching as a pale Neville hurriedly stood and exited the Great Hall in a hurry, Hermione herself standing after pushing her plate Ron's way.

"I'll see you both in class," she told them at their confused expressions, remembering Neville's words the year before when he asked for her discretion involving the state of his parents.

Knowing that the other boy would most likely retreat to the greenhouses, she had just turned the corner that would display each hot house and saw one of the further down doors silently swinging shut. Making her way inside, Hermione found the house filled with big green leafy plants all turned towards a sniffling that seemed to be emitted from a corner in the back, seemingly drooping in sadness as in sympathy for the boy who no doubt tended to them. Finding him on the ground with his head sobbing into his knees, he looked up to her with red rimmed eyes after she deliberately shuffled her feet in front of him. Saying nothing, as she knew there was nothing she could say that would make him feel any safer that they already were in a physical sense, she sat next to him and wrapped an arm around his taller shoulders.

He placed his face into her small neck, tears pooling in the dip of her collarbone until he calmed. "Isn't it a horrible thing, Hermione, to wish that they would know what it feels like to be trapped inside their minds like my parents are? That they would know the pain that I have to deal with whenever I think of my parents never truly knowing that I am their son?"

"It's understandable, Neville." Hermione tells him quietly, guilt suffusing her stomach at the thought that she had known of something that could reduce a brilliant young man into something of a crying mess and had no control whatsoever in the matter. For a split second, a moment in this time watching as Neville once again fought another round of tears, Hermione couldn't help but hate herself, and hate Tom Riddle for what they have done for power.

_Or what she has told herself, what she has done to protect the people that she loves… but at what expense? The fear suffusing the hearts of the people who had no protection other than her own limited self, her not- so- endless control on the person who has caused their pain but still stayed his hand at no doubt even more horrible deeds?_

But that hate faded after that one split moment, the love she had for her master not completely the act that she tells Severus it is. The act that Severus sometimes told her himself with his eyes, but not in words, that he knew that she was just fooling herself into thinking she had the control over the Dark Lord. That people who love each other can never have complete dominance over that other person who loved them just as much. There is always that piece of you that you yield up to them freely, that sense of _forgiveness_ for anything they do for the sake of saying you will never stop loving them no matter what.

What happens when you eventually have to choose between one of the people you love more than yourself, and another that you would die for?


	27. 5th Year Part Nine

" _It is absolutely okay with me if you need to keep some secrets. I've been thinking abut this and I decided that a best friend is someone who, when they don't understand, they still understand."_

_~ Nancy Werlin_

~.O.~

Harry came angrily into the Three Broomsticks, slamming the door behind him as he wiped numerous specks of pink confetti out of his, as always, messy hair. Several adult patrons, as well as the very rude shrunken heads that cursed at him, gave him dirty looks at the show of temper that had momentarily interrupted their peaceful afternoons. He then had the decency to flush and apologize before continuing to Hermione who was waving at him from the back of the room.

He plopped down in front of her, immediately grabbing his butterbeer that she had ordered for him and placed a stasis charm upon and taking a sip before speaking, "Why are women so difficult?"

Hermione raised her signature eyebrow at him, "You do realize you are talking to your best friend, who is indeed a woman?"

He laughed a little with even redder cheeks than he entered the room with, giving Hermione a glimpse of a pink tongue that he no doubt got with his date with Cho who he finally got up the courage to ask out just days ago.

_Madame Puddifoot's and everything pink, lacey, and ruffley. What on earth was the boy thinking?_

"Cho got angry at me and left when I told her I had to meet you." His laughter subsided for his earlier consternation and a frown, "Apparently she thinks I'm some sort of a man slag after saying her I had to meet my _best friend_ after our date was over."

Hermione was now the one to laugh at him, and at the thought of him being a slag.

_If only the girl knew how long it took for him to actually get up the courage to ask her out in the beginning… man slag indeed! If the definition was: young man who has a habit of watching a girl he likes for months before finally being enough of a big boy to ask them out._

"Well no wonder, Harry! Bringing up a girl that you have to meet in the middle of a date." She shook her head at him as she giggled into her own glass of butterbeer, while he was very considerate of her, most of the time, Harry did have the tendency to botch talking with any other girl who has taken an interest in him. Exhibit Pavarti and Padma who were just smitten with him during the time of the Yule Ball just last year, who they each then decided to try their best in ignoring for lack of conversation topics and spying on her.

The boy rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, "You're my best friend! Everybody knows that!" He defended himself, conveniently forgetting all the people who thought that relationship signature was simply a cover for, _Hi, this is my best friend who's really my girlfriend in disguise for some reason or another, Hermione._

"Rit Skeeter seems to have missed that memo last year," Hermione scowls in remembrance of that horrible woman's very uninformed articles during the Triwizard Tournament, grateful that Tom had decided against swaying the woman to the side of the Dark even if she was not someone he would want in the beginning. Having simply to ask her the favor of degrading Dumbledore's reputation to which she readily agreed as the unknown man by the name of _Marvolo Gaunt II_ had saved her from the horrible girl and nasty professor who had held her hostage in a jar for the better part of several months. Then she smiled as Ginny and Luna came up behind Harry, "Maybe you need to date a girl who _already_ knows for sure that I am just your best friend, and won't accuse you of otherwise."

Hermione glances sideways at Ginny who was pretending to ignore their conversation after they all said hello to each other, Harry asking, "And who exactly would you recommend, Hermione?"

"Well there are two girls sitting right here who know that little detail for sure," she motions to a now blushing Ginny who was avoiding her eyes, and a brightly grinning Luna.

..

Hermione was then on her way down to the dungeons later the next day for Harry's Occlumency lesson when she happened across Luna on the stairs. Barefoot on the uneven stone floor that always seemed to be colder than it should be, as if ice water were flowing through to fill in the cracks.

"Hi, Hermione." Luna said to her, waving a hand that boasted a new bottle cap bracelet to replace the one she had gifted the curly haired girl at the beginning of the year, citing that it would banish Wrackspurts from interfering with her thoughts.

"Hi, Luna." She told the fairer haired girl, still glancing down worriedly to the girl's feet. "What are you doing walking around with no shoes? It's too cold down here to be without them."

"Oh," the other girl looks down to her pale feet that were tinted grey with cold and dirt and tipped with happy bright yellow nail polish. "The other girls in my dorm needed them more than me, I always find them in random places though after they've borrowed them. One time a baby thestral brought me one that was in the Black Lake, the Squid had thrown it at it scaring it horribly before it smelled my scent on it and brought it back to the edge of the school."

Hermione nodded slowly, knowing all too well from her years at muggle primary school how things could get _borrowed_ and lost very easily when she asked those who she had learnt markers or books to for the object back. They would lie to her saying they had lost it, and that they were very sorry even as she could tell they were not.

The all- too- trusting girl cocked her head at Hermione as she murmured a warming charm to her feet before grabbing her hand and steering them towards Gryffindor tower. "You'll get frostbite on your toes if you go outside like this, and from what I've heard it isn't the most pleasant feeling having to regrow bones that have had to been chopped off. I'll lend you a pair of my own, and if the other girls try to _borrow_ them tell them that they have to ask me themselves."

"You don't have to do that, Hermione. I can transfigure some shoes if my feet get too cold," Luna told her, "You were just going to visit Professor Snape, I don't want to hold you up."

Hermione blinked a moment at her smiling, not in the least surprised at the girl's seemingly infinite knowledge. "I don't mind, I can be a little late."

"You know, I've always thought he was quite handsome, in a nonconventional way. Don't you agree?" A sparkle shone in Luna's eye as she leaned her head closer to Hermione and spoke in almost a whisper, the twinkle much like the one in Dumbledore's when he knew something not of common knowledge that he approved of.

_How does her friend always end up from saying something completely naive to something absolutely true?_

"Yes," she giggled, "He is isn't he?" Both of the girls' laughs echoed slightly throughout the moving staircases, the portraits them smiling down to the secretively speaking girls below them.

..

Hermione rushed down the hallway towards Severus' office, having spent longer than she thought finding shoes for Luna and talking with her about everything and nothing boy related. Apparently the fairer girl thought Neville was quite handsome. Hoping Severus and Harry hadn't gotten into anything due to their tempers in her absence, she had a very strong feeling that contradicted that hope even while she told herself everything was completely fine until proven otherwise. Quickly opening the door that had just been swinging closed seemingly of it's own volition, she came to a scene in which she never would have thought of. Although, she shouldn't be surprised considering some of the decisions the boy in question has made in the past, and no doubt will continue making.

_Of all the things the boy could possibly do…_

Severus stood frozen between where she stood in the doorway and the black headed boy who held his face in the private memories gathered within the pensive that was delicately sitting on the edge of Severus' desk. Her love stood before her with the face of intense anger bordering on loathing, pain, and panic all wrapped up in one complex expression. All these years later, the epitome of James Potter with just a hint of Lily standing before him in such a way simply brought up too many nasty memories to allow for any proper action.

Hermione took a step forward, knocking the dark wooded wand Severus must have dropped in his rare moment of surprise. Quickly reaching down to grab it, she made her way in front of the paralyzed man.

"Severus," she slipped it back into his hidden robe pocket before pulling his face down to look into her eyes, knowing she would have to check on him before pulling Harry out of the room by the ear. "Severus, look at me. Now." He finally ripped his eyes from her foolish best friend, "Are you okay?"

"Get him out. Get him away from me."

..

_Harry was stuck inside of the professor's most private memories, memories that he was never meant to see he realized once his body was stuck inside that of a young boy crying within a tall hook nosed woman's arms who sat on her knees behind him. But he could not seem to pull himself away once he was bound to the small skinny boy in which he inhabited, a boy much like he himself had been at that age._

_The woman who held him exhibited a bruise on her sharp cheek bones, framed by long dark eyelashes covering very sad eyes that flinched each time the angry man before the mother and child raised his deep voice. In a way that was very familiar, yet the man instead of being called uncle was by the name of father and husband. A father's voice that belonged very much to the Hogwarts Potions Master. Harry's vocal cords ached as the man who looked little like the small boy in looks, but every way similar in the spark of anger lighting within his eye grabbed him about the shoulder with one hand while he burned a hole through his already threadbare shirt. The smell of cigarette smoke, burning flesh and fabric, and eye watering booze that all spelled Father in the boy's mind permeated around his small body. The woman behind him mimicked his scared and pain filled screams as if she herself was being burned by the cigarette, the wand she had not used for years and years sitting very innocently on the fireplace mantle. Waiting and hoping in vain for it's mistress to once again pull it from it's restless sleep._

" _Gods, Severus! Tobias, please! He's just a boy!"_

_The memory then shifted suddenly from the man's terrifying father to a scene less physically rattling and filled with adrenaline, yet more surprising and filled with just as much pain._

_A teenage boy with long black hair hung upside down, feeling a deep loathing and despair as he latched eyes on a red headed woman with pin straight hair to her waist as his grey underpants were pulled to his ankles, exposing his most private parts. Harry's own heart thudded outside of the memory even as the boy's cheeks burned in shame and undeniable embarrassment, recognizing the woman who had given up her life to spare his own. Mum…_

_The group of laughing boys behind the girl was headed by a boy with round glasses falling down the bridge of his nose, much like his own, with a head of unmanageable hair that stuck around his head with no direction. The girl's eyes turned stricken once his lips formed a most hated word, "Mudblood…"_

_He shifted once again… "I am sorry, Lily." He was on his knees before the beautiful girl, looking up to her expression that spelled absolute betrayal and disgust, and something that looked too much like a glimmer of relief to be rid of the boy she had been drifting apart from for years leading up to this horrible day. Once again, there was a black haired boy boasting a sadistic grin and glasses at the girl's shoulder, another boy with curlier dark hair and much the same expression beside him leaning against the portrait of the Fat Lady who looked at him with much sympathy. James Potter and Sirius Black._

_Unconsciously latching onto the woman and the fading glow of love within the boy's mind in which he was stuck within, Harry once again saw a younger version of his mother being given a delicate little daisy that had bloomed in the long bones of his small handed fingers. A memory in which held only the smallest sentiments for the girl who had been called Lily Evans, a long faded feeling that held no more bearing on the boy- turned- man's presence as it had within his teenage years. Resentment and a long faded pain having faded along with this love, leaving behind only these recollections of a time in his life._

_The last of the memory in which The- Boy- Who- Lived was stuck in before a familiar feminine voice began breaking through to him was that of the voice's owner leaning against him in a moving vehicle, her tiny breathing puffing small breaths onto his neck. With his arm around the tiny body and looking down to the girl's caramel curls while intermittent light from outside the car flashed it's color at him, Harry felt a much stronger love suffusing his being than any of the previous memories. Much different from the anger of the first and faded wavering of emotion connected to the red haired girl that had given his interloper of a mind within these memories life, as he rubbed the silk of her gown between her fingers he felt a peace as he had never known._

_The smaller girl's curls and peaceful face was still seared into his brain when the memory was cut off before only to be replaced by the actual furious face of his best friend, although he could see why exactly it was such a specially coveted memory. Harry lamented the fact that he was pulled from emotion such as what the memory had shared with him, never having known such a thing as he had felt in that silent moment as he looked down to his best friend. Never before had he ever felt anything to that sort of magnitude in anyone's presence, although he did admit it was a very close thing when laying emotionally vulnerable within a dark room, wrapped around the girl as they talked of possession._

_An expression etching itself upon her face that he would never forget for as long as he lived shook him to the very core of his soul at how utterly angry she was. Only once had he seen anything even resembling the absolute fury staining Hermione's face, when her beloved feline was flung against a wall, but this time, he could cause his permanent death with eyes such as these._

..

Hermione kissed the sensitive spot below Severus' ear in hopes of comforting him along with the firewhiskey he held in his hand that did not grip her around the waist. After Hermione had pulled Harry from Severus' memories, the lesson surprisingly had continued with much the same results as the last. An even more horrible headache with no relief this time around. But this day Harry left alone, not able to look at his still furious best friend in the eyes as he passed where she sat once again behind Severus' desk with her arms crossed in silence.

"The boy's barriers are sufficiently broken down for the Dark Lord to explore his mind without being noticed," he broke their hour long silence, "With Nagini having been perusing the Department of Mysteries, Potter has been hearing distorted whispers of what I assume must be the prophecy if that is indeed where it is being held. I will inform the Dark Lord that we are searching in the correct place, and you will inform the boy that our lessons are at an end. I can no longer fulfill my orders from the Headmaster."

Hermione silently nodded, her stomach clenching at the thought that they were so close to obtaining the prophecy that Tom had wished in his possession as well as the thought of speaking to Harry in such a small time frame when she was still filled with such anger.

~.O.~

Hermione had not spoken to Harry since that night he had decided to stick his nose into business other than his own, but not for lack of trying on his part. He had attempted everything in his power to apologize, yet she snubbed even every mention of his name until _she_ decided enough was enough. It seemed though that she would never deem him worthy of her attention again as she continued to ignore him even while he followed her around the Room of Requirement on her rounds. In between her efforts in correcting those students who had not quite mastered a specific technique off her list, Harry attempted to get her to speak to him once more. To no avail, until he decided enough was enough himself and grabbed her about the waist, lifting her struggling form several inches off the floor before him, and set her in a secluded corner beside the large wooden entrance doors.

"Back to work," Harry told the several people who had witnessed their little tiff who then turned back to their partners, knowing from the beginning of their meeting that their two leaders were in an argument. Hermione having never ignored Harry for any reason at all no matter how angry she was, each person in Dumbledore's Army knew both of them enough that the boy would not resort to such means if it were not very important.

He turned back to a now cross armed and glaring curly haired girl, "When are you finally going to speak to me again, Hermione? I've told you I am sorry, what more can I do so you will stop freezing me out?" He pleaded with her, although she was not moved one bit. "I know what I did was an invasion of Snape's privacy. Professor Snape." He quickly corrected himself for want of actually getting back on her good side and not backslide due to simply bad manners over the professor's proper title. A flash of remembered bone deep peace went through his mind for not the first time since Hermione had begun her silent treatment.

She cocked her head at him, staring for a moment before saying, "You will apologize. To him."

Harry exhales sharply as he flinched, _at least she was finally speaking again. Even if it was something he didn't particularly like._ "I have been trying, but each time I even look his way it's like he wants to set me on fire with the sheer force of his glaring. He could do it too!"

Hermione smirked slightly at this, her tightly crossed arms loosening a bit in the knowledge that at least he has tried, and even she could see that his observation of Severus was correct. Each time the dark man even glimpsed a messy head of black hair from the corner of his eye his own began to narrow to slits, practically exhaling smoke from his flaring nostrils.

"How many memories did you see?" she asked him, knowing exactly what Severus had put into his pensive, but most likely if Harry had seen anything between her and the other man that would have been the first thing he told her rather than that he had already tried apologizing. _Maybe._

Harry hesitated, avoiding her eyes for a second before pulling them back up to her drastically softened face compared to in the day, "I saw most of them I think, he knew my mother and father, Hermione. He was friends with my mother before Hogwarts." He chose to ignore the last tidbit of memory he had seen before the girl in question had pulled him away, for the time being. The only thing he could possibly do at the moment was to bide his time in bringing it up to his best friend. Although, he had felt the emotions connected to each memory of the professor's life, and it didn't seem like the type of emotions a man would feel for his student and pupil.

 _They were already planning on continuing with each other_ _after graduation… beginning the next chapter of their lives after the war together… how could he have been so blind all these years? Because it was simply a fact that he had long ago consented to, that Hermione and the spy had a much closer relationship that a student and professor should have. Even closer than he and Dumbledore, or Hagrid, as much as she had liked to reason with him that the man was the one to introduce her to the magical world… it was an altogether different kind of relationship they had than any he had seen…_

_Does she feel the same for him as he does for her?_

Hermione's face showed neither surprise nor shock, basically giving him the answer that she knew exactly the content of either the pensive memories, or the professor's past that had long connected him to Harry. The dark haired boy was not surprised at the girl's lack of reaction if what he suspected as true.

She suddenly hugged him, cutting off whatever he had intended to say next, and Harry simply wrapped his arms around her happy that she was not angry at him anymore. "I figured he was, Harry. He was in their same year, but I don't want to hear anything else about those 're very private and you don't need to be telling anyone else of them, especially Ron."

She pulled back to give him once last stern glare before hugging her tighter, he smiled before sliding the hand that had been hugging her shoulder up to the side of her neck. "You are a very kind person, Hermione."

She smiled, but as she opened her mouth to reply, the heavy door beside them swung open far faster than it ever had before, causing Hermione and Harry to jump at the loud piercing squeak that sounded throughout the room. A panting and less than dignified Draco came barreling inside, looking frantically around with a piece of his normally slicked back hair falling onto his forehead as he finally set eyes on Hermione still wrapped up in Harry's arms. His long legs carried him to her fast, grabbing her arm before bending down to talk in her ear as many of those around them watched in wariness and confusion.

"Get everyone out, Umbridge caught one of the Ravenclaw girls down the hall. Hurry, I have to inform Severus that she needs _veritaserum_ for the interrogation but the girl looked like she was going to start talking on her own any minute."

Hermione had a brief surge of renewed disgust for the pink clad woman for using the truth potion on underaged children, but even then, it was simply innocuous and innocent compared to using blood quills on first years. Hopefully, whichever Ravenclaw the woman had caught would be smart enough to heed Hermione's meeting from the first meeting about what would happen she she talk of her own free will. She nodded to the blonde boy who then took right off once she indicated she understood his message, Harry all the while looking to her wide eyed in panic.

Hermione grabbed his cheeks on either side, causing him to loose his balance slightly and stumble into her as she brought him down to her shorter level in order to kiss his forehead quickly before informing the rest of the students still staring at them in the wake of Draco's departure of this new development.

"Do not let my hugs fool you, Harry. I will forgive you once you have _actually_ apologized to Professor Snape, not simply _trying your best._ " She told him, not even beginning to panic herself at the thought that they were all about to get caught by the one woman they did not want to be caught by. She turned back to the room as she gestured to a new door on the other side of the room that had appeared in a lighter wood color than their normal one, "Everybody stay calm and proceed on out the back door, please. The High Inquisitor has caught one our Ravenclaws and is intending on using _veritaserum_ on the girl, please disallusion yourselves and retreat." Hermione neglected to mention the fact that Severus' truth serum that he had been supplying to the woman all year had been completely ineffective, but regardless, she would be required to say exactly _why_ she knew that inside information. Once it looked as if several others would begin to panic themselves much like Harry, she said once again, "Calmly walk out and proceed back to your houses." As several people disappeared under their charms, Hermione tapped each of the younger years who had not quite gotten it just right and sent them on their way.

Once she was back within the confines of Gryffindor Tower, she took out the copy of the list of names she had given Severus months ago, and observed the name now written in red within the sea of black. Withdrawing her master galleon from her pocket, she tapped her wand to it and whispered the name of the girl who had outed her friends and betrayed her house.

..

Marietta Edgecomb came to breakfast the with a thick length of gauze covering her forehead, although spots of red still managed to seep through the one pristine color. Several people who had previously had no affiliation with the now pale cheeked and sleep deprived girl shunned her for no reason at all that the professors could discern. All except for one dark clad one who had been called for his expertise in dark curses into the infirmary late in the afternoon the day he tapped the girl's name on a piece of parchment, as Madame Pomfrey clearly would take the Potion Master's Defense Against the Dark Arts knowledge over the woman who had her students writing essays throughout the whole year. Several had noticeably balked though once the girl's blood could be seen through the gauze, glancing quickly towards the middle of the Gryffindor table where a certain girl sat with her wide eyed friends, those students seeing her nonchalant expression before turning back away just as fast as they had picked her out.

Once the Ravenclaw who was released several days later with the devastating news that the new word branded and carved into her supple skin would indeed be permanent, she had found her warm Dumbledore's Army galleon permanently etched with her name as well. Hermione Granger's words echoing in her head of their very first meeting, _if you should tell anyone not in this room without permission from myself or Harry, your name will be known for everyone to do with you what they will…_ The girl cried and cried on Cho's shoulder who assured her all would be okay, it was not her fault. But they could clearly both discern that all would not indeed be okay once they _both_ entered a realm of shunning the next day, the students they had once been friends with doing to them what they felt was necessary.

Cho being looped into it even by Harry Potter for sticking up for her best friend, and when asking him to reverse the curse, he looked to _his_ best friend who had been watching as Marietta's new fringe swayed slightly to reveal the word etched into her skin with a cocked head.

_Snitch_

Once the girl who had betrayed their trust through no fault of faulty _veritaserum_ saw where the other girl's eyes were trained, the darker haired girl flinched from her gaze as she suddenly realized that Cho was asking the wrong person to reverse the horrible magic that had scarred her.

" _Please, Hermione._ " She begged, causing Cho to look to her in confusion as to why she was talking to her and not Harry who had been the figurehead behind everything within Dumbledore's Army. He must have been, after all they were all united together across the houses by the boy who saw her beloved Cedric die right before his eyes. Who knew so much that could help protect them against the man who had killed the other boy she had loved so.

"Please," Marietta begged Hermione whilst on the verge of tears, "It won't go away. Professor Snape said the magic is too powerful for even him to break down, although he doesn't know how a student could have cursed me. That it looks like an advanced witch or wizard must have cursed me." Her tears finally spilled over onto her cheeks, "I can't even glamour it away."

_Professor Snape knows exactly how such a curse could be irreversible, it was him that taught her how such a bit of magic could be so after all._

Hermione simply observed the girl with impassive eyes while Harry turned towards her, hesitantly saying, "Hermione, maybe you should take it away. I think she's learned her lesson."

The scarred girl nodded frantically, Cho looking gratefully at Harry for intervening, "I have, I am so sorry for what I did."

"It wasn't her fault, Hermione." Cho finally spoke directly to her and not the boy beside her, although she did avoid her eyes as if she were somehow intimidated by her. "It was the _veritaserum_ Umbridge forced her to take."

Hermione glanced between Harry and Cho for a second before taking out her wand, noting Marietta's flinch back. "I will do you a favor, Marietta." She tapped her wand lightly to the ridged and bumpy word, causing the redness to fade smoothly for a split second, before it reappeared. "You will be able to glamour it gone, but maybe it will serve as a reminder that you never turn your back on those you care for no matter the cost or outside influences."

Cho opened her mouth with a defiant expression covering her face, no doubt to once again tell the other girl her friend had no choice in the matter, but Hermione interrupted her next tirade in favor of turning back to Harry. All the while Marietta still held her small fingers up to hide the word written upon her skin, her skin growing cold at the thought that maybe, somehow, Hermione knew the impossible truth she would never reveal to her own best friend.

"Lets go, Harry." Hermione grabbed his hand in preparation of walking away, and Harry who had once had a crush on Cho even after their disastrous date, turned from her and her friend all too easily to follow his own best friend who he loved despite her occasional malicious streaks. Not saying a word at her decision to simply allow a glamouring over the dark magic she had performed instead of following his suggestion to make away with it all together.

Hermione, who had remembered Harry's tale of jealousy from not too long ago, wrapped her arm around the boy whose hand she had let go freer than Cho ever could grab up during their brief dalliance. The curly headed girl's slitted pupils met his now past love intrest's completely stricken eyes over her shoulder and smiled in such a mocking way Cho herself felt tears come to her own eyes as if she herself was the one to have been forever cursed with a permanent marking.

It all goes to show you that girls, muggle or no, had the very high capability to ruin another girl's complete self- esteem through sheer force of will, words, and actions.

Later on while standing in front of the bathroom mirror, Marietta ran her fingers over her deceptively looking smooth forehead that when touched still barred the markings of the letters of _Snitch._ Although she was not surprised that the glamour only hid surface imperfections and not that of anything deeper than the skin, she could not help but think all the while:

_How could she know that I was just too scared of Umbridge that I spilled our most coveted secrets, and it was not Professor Snape's potions that compelled the truth from her?_

~.O.~

Hermione sat across from Harry and Ron in the library, flipping through a book with something of an attitude while the two boys spoke of how crazy Hagrid is from bringing his brother onto Hogwarts grounds from his time spent with the giants. Being his mother's pure giant born offspring, Grawp himself was as big a giant as any it seemed to Hermione, although Hagrid maintains the fact that he is one of the smaller than average ones within his clan. Or was one of the smaller ones as the half- giant had decided to bring him back to his home within the school, settling him into the Forbidden Forest that was not as forbidden to students as it might seem. The trio itself seemed to have been entering it far more than the average student with a professor's actual _permission_ each time. Most of the time in Hermione's case as sometimes she would enter, taking care to steer clear of centaur territory, when certain spells called for solitude. Even then, Severus always knew where she was, but she wouldn't exactly call that a professor's permission in any case as he was never one to tell her no. She would just go ahead and complete her task before asking for forgiveness.

"I wish I could have gone with you," Ron complained as he had been stuck in detention, thankfully still free of blood quills as it seemed every time Umbridge made a new batch of the horrible things they would mysteriously tear themselves apart. The feathers flying everywhere and the nubs broken off with a little help from an orange familiar who love his mother's permission to trash any and everything in the horrible woman's private office and quarters. He was the best at sniffing them out no matter where they were hidden at any rate.

The red head's words prompted Hermione to glare at him before growling and uncharacteristically slamming her book shut, to which she earned a glare of her own from Madame Pince. Harry kicked Ron on the shin beneath the table, making him glare incredulously before Harry tilts his head towards Hermione. But as usual, Ron was oblivious so he turned back to Hermione with a resigned shake of the head.

"Where are you going, Hermione?" he asked her.

"I am going to talk to a man about setting wards around that part of the forest to keep _adventurous first years_ from walking straight into a friendly giant!" She begins to turn around, but then pauses and turns back to Harry with her eyes narrowed. "Have you apologized to Professor Snape yet for sticking your nose in things that it didn't belong in?" Her eyebrow raised in imitation of the man in question as Harry placed his chin on his hand and glanced away from her, silently speaking his answer. Her robes swished around her in her irritation as she walked away, calling behind her shoulder as she did so, "Do it soon, you won't be able to put it off forever."

Ron watched as she walked away, "Always so bossy."

Harry chuckled, "You should know that by now, mate."

~.O.~

As preparation for Ordinary Wizarding levels began, Hermione became more and more agitated as exhibited by her hair becoming frizzy and even more outlandish than before as the curls constricted and then proceeded to volumize in such a way as to make hair models jealous. As the boys did not study as much as she did even with these most important examinations coming up, most of her studying was done in the privacy and silence of Severus' rooms in front of the fireplace with her books spread out all around her until she fell asleep. Usually she would be awoken by Severus wrapped in his grey satin sheets with him reading beside her just in time to get back to Gryffindor Tower before curfew. It was on such a day she had taken a nap in his bed of her own volition before intending on getting back to work for the OWL the next day that he returned to his rooms clad in his distinctively nondiscript robes, bone mask in hand as he sat on the edge of his bed.

"Severus?" She asked groggily, her blearily eyes on his back, "I didn't know you had a meeting tonight." He sighed heavily as she sleepily crawled to him on her knees, resting her still fuzzy head on his shoulder while draping herself over him from behind. Listening to his heartbeat, she waited for him to say something as she was on the brink of dozing off once again.

It seemed like forever until he finally did, "It will happen tomorrow. After the last OWL has been taken, the Dark Lord will plant a memory in the boy's mind to lure him into the Department of Mysteries."

Hermione's eyes opened slowly, for a second not comprehending her love's words in her half- consciousness. But once again she remembers the words of plot and intrigue that had hatched after her last one- on- one meeting with the Dark Lord. A plot in which she was once again against, but had limited say in. Both of his large hands folding over her own, he loosened them from where they had balled up his robes. But she could not muster up the energy with everything else weighing on her mind to be completely anxious about it.

She knew he felt exactly as she did about the situation as she did, if not for different reasons. Being that it was the first time she would be put into a situation with the Death Eaters while alongside Harry and not himself, he was particularly worried that she would be injured as her identity as the Dark Lord's closest advisor was as of yet, not common knowledge.

"I will be okay, Severus. Or rather, I will be as careful as I can to come back to you unharmed." She whispered in his ear, to which his simply tilted his head back on her shoulder in order to bury his nose in the side of her neck, inhaling that potent scent of his that had seeped into the now scarred bite mark he had gifted to her.

~.O.~

" _There has been new information that has recently come to light," Tom told those of his inner circle that were gathered. A select few of which having resided within Azkaban all these long years, Tom had allowed those who seemed as if they had not completely lost their minds on this most important mission of his. Although, Hermione severely doubted Bellatrix Lestrange's sanity as she seemed to be a very twitchy woman who must have once been very pretty before her years locked away from the sun with all her wild curls must like her own looking as if they had no order to them. She scoffed at that thought, as if she were one to talk. Her husband and brother fared slightly better than her though, as they sat listening to their new course of direction silently, yet Rabastan Lestrange did have a slightly vacant expression written upon him that spoke of no care for anything least of all a prophecy made over a decade and a half ago._

" _The prophecy has been within the Department of Mysteries all this time, but yet, we can not seem to get our hands on it as it seems that Lucius has discovered from our severely inept Minister that those prophecies can only be found by those in which they specifically reference." Tom looked around the relatively small group of people, "I myself would retrieve it, but as the Ministry is as of this point in time, still in denial of my resurrection, I intend to keep it that way so as to not add supporters to the side of Light for as long as possible." He pauses before continuing with his next edict, "No fatal harm will come to Harry Potter or those who are closest to him."_

_For the first time in the short meeting, there was an uproar of voices that were then silenced quickly by Severus, who for now took Hermione's spot at Tom's right hand with her standing behind him._

_Tom ignored the blatant insubordination and continued with his orders, "We will flush Harry Potter and his followers out into gaining the prophecy, and each of you will be in charge of keeping the peace. Lucius will head each of you, and you will listen to him as if his orders were mine own. Are all of you clear on what your orders are, and what you are explicitly warned against?"_

_Orders in the affirmative sounded throughout the table as Hermione kept her gaze on a still furious Bellatrix who had been the loudest voice within the room in yelling harm against Harry._


	28. 5th Year Part Ten

" _There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth."_

_~ Friedrich Nietzsche_

~.O.~

It was during the aftermath of Fred and George's departure from Hogwarts, finally having decided that school was simply not for them when their joke shop was well on it's way to becoming a reality, that Harry experienced a severe pain within his forehead. A pain like no other that he had experienced emanating from his scar that brought him to his knees in the middle of a cheering crowd, paying him no attention at all. Except the caramel colored eyes that have always seemed to watch his every move, taking him in her arms as he writhed upon the sharp cobblestones that he called home.

" _Tell me where the prophecy is, Black." His own lips formed the command to a bound Sirius, on his knees before him looking as defiant as ever. "The Department of Mysteries has long hoarded prophecies within it's walls, I know it is here."_

_Harry's godfather laughed even through the split lip he boasted, blood dripping down his chin and onto the shiny reflective stone of the marble floor in which his knees rested upon, "The Order has hidden it, I do not know where it is. Regardless, I would not tell anyone least of all you where it were located even if I were on the brink of death."_

_His head cocked to the side as an utterly delighted sounding laugh rattled through his vocal cords, he began to turn to his right, showcasing a long darkened room filled with hundreds of thousands of glowing orbs holding a roiling mist inside them. He walked away from Sirius, just up to a mirror that exhibited a very familiar looking face with blue eyes and dark as night coiffed hair. Voldemort's healthily red human- like lips so different than Harry had previously imagined prior to the night of the last Triwizard Tournament curled in amusement, "What would you do Harry Potter, if your godfather were on the brink of death, at mine and my Death Eater's mercy?"_

_Harry felt his entire body jerk as the monster who had killed his family spoke to him through the impossible mind link that they shared, controlling his own lips as he laughed in amusement at the thought of harming the only family the boy had left. "Would you allow him to be tortured for the location of a simple prophecy, one in which you could find as easily as if your wand were calling you from the bottom of the ocean?"_

_He turned back to Sirius' now horrified and tension filled body, "No, Harry- "_

_The Black family heir's words were cut off with a non-verbal silencing charm, a charm that neglected to mask the expression of intense pain that came from Voldemort's wand being pointed towards him._

" _It is your choice Harry, a simple trading of prophecy for godfather. No more harm will come to you or yours for the time being, as long as you give me what is mine."_

..

Hermione had strenuously argued against the thought of proceeding to the Department of Mysteries and willingly putting himself at the mercy of Voldemort, but for once, her legendary stubbornness was outweighed by Harry's thoughts of a suffering and captive Sirius. She had sighed in resignation, and at the very least recommended calling Grimmauld Place to inform the Order of their foolhardy actions in going themselves despite Harry's proclamations that they needed to sneak from the castle _that very moment_ least Sirius be in the hands of the Death Eaters for any longer than necessary. As Dumbledore had been ousted from Hogwarts by way of the Ministry on a temporary leave pending hearing at the merest hint of scandal due to Marietta Edgecombe's accusations of an _army_ boasting his name, they had to resort to using the only other available Floo Network available. In the new Headmistress' pink covered office as the gargoyle guarding Headmaster Dumbledore's would not open for the ministry no matter the fact that it was indeed that, an all- knowing and all- powerful governing body of the wizarding world who was in the middle of deposing the currently _corrupt_ headmaster.

Hermione had been in charge of guarding the office while Harry, Ron, Luna, Neville, and Ginny each huddled inside for the call, while surreptitiously keeping an ear on the goings on to who answered the floo. The Marauder's Map having been in her school bag in her room she told them rather than not in the beaded bag she held around her chest, she said she would rather be caught by a professor than any of the others as she could talk herself out of the situation. As long as it were not the owner of the floo coming along. It being a known but un-acknowledged thing that Sirius often went into muggle London during the end of the week after being cooped up in his childhood home all those long days with only Remus and the occasional Order member as company, the Dark Lord had chosen this day with that piece of information in mind that Severus had given him. Alas, she was not a vigilant as she could have been while keeping an ear on Kreacher who had answered the call, and was caught very swiftly by Millicent Bulstrode of the Inquisitorial Squad while several others holding the _prestigious_ title came around the corner. Headed by Umbridge herself.

She had been roughly thrown back into the office with an apologetic glance at the other startled students crowded around the rapidly fading flames of the floo, those of the Inquisitorial Squad just behind her. Millicent, Goyle, Crabb, and Draco who looked to her confused as to why exactly she was in this particular office, each grabbed hold of their arms at Umbridge's orders so as to not allow them access to their wands.

Severus was called once again to administer _veritaserum_ , to which he replied he had no more as the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor had used the last drops on gaining intelligence on Dumbledore's Army. As he had turned around, Harry had his last hope of getting a message to Dumbledore as Kreacher was not likely to pass along anything told to him for dislike of anyone not confined within his former Mistress' portrait.

"He has Padfoot at the place it is hidden!" Harry yelled desperately at the dark professor' back, causing him to turn around with a raised eyebrow. Umbridge looking between the two dark headed men in confusion to which she expressed, and Severus shot down in ignorance.

At last, Hermione had to resort to last minute thoughts and measures to keep the nasty woman from using the _cruciatus_ curse on Harry, noting Neville's extremely pale face and darting eyes in her direction that practically begged her to think of something that kept him from seeing the effects of that particular spell. Eventually, she held onto Harry's hand to keep him from tripping in the darkness of the Forbidden Forest in which she had led the pink woman to believe Dumbledore had hidden a secret weapon. She could see him glancing at her from the corner of her eye, his hand tightening within her's in question as to where exactly they were going once they passed a previously warded clearing of uprooted trees that held an innocently broken rope within the center. Wards that had prevented students from even going near the giant's clearing, but had no effect on Grawp as no magic had an effect with those of pure giant blood short of an _incarcerous._ She shook her head slightly, feeling Umbridge poke her lighted wand into her back. Finally, she crossed into the territory that housed the centaurs who did not take lightly to trespassers, much less ones who boasted their prestige within the ministry and insisted on calling them _creatures of near human intelligence_ despite their larger numbers.

_If anything, they had a much higher intelligence and learning than most humans due to their affinity with reading the stars… she had much more respect for them than she did most humans…_

Hermione could not help but feel a deep sense of satisfaction at seeing Dolores Umbridge being dragged off deeper into the woods, pleading for help from the children she had scarred. The small girl now having peace of mind that she had punished the woman for committing all the atrocities against the students of Hogwarts, and presuming to touch what someone other than herself had claimed as rightfully hers. A certain sense spread throughout Hermione's body even knowing exactly what types of savagery a centaur herd would commit against a human woman. Although she knew centaurs were not considered Dark Creatures nor Light Creatures as they had no allegiance to any but their own, their beastiality could be mistaken for those of dark actions by humans who knew nothing of heard mentality. Much like how humans could never understand how a wild animal could eat it's own dead or ill young, it being the fruit of their own wombs being nothing compared to the honor it was to be eaten and sustain it's pack throughout inclimate conditions instead of simply letting it rot into the earth.

But even riding her slightly dark high, a stab of fear flowed through Hermione's body once the leader of the heard came to a stop just in front of her and Harry, two others with their bows drawn to the ground behind him.

"What business do you have within our woods, foal? Witch?" The leader looked to Harry, and then herself, acknowledging the fact that she was the older of the two and was therefore responsible for bringing an underaged boy within their territory. Although, Hermione never quite knew how they could tell when she looked exactly the age as she would have been if she had not used the time- turner and had her years increased to the age of adulthood.

_Magorian_

Hermione bowed her head respectfully, forcing Harry's down as well with her hand on the back of his neck before releasing him once more as she met Magorian's eyes. "We have brought you the woman who is responsible for many human laws restricting your kind's territory, as well as committing heinous acts against the foals of Hogwarts. All we ask is to leave the way we came, and never enter your territory without permission again."

Magorian studied the tiny girl witch that had given them a great gift, noting how her pupils slitted the longer she was in their presence. Obvious as it were that she herself did not consider herself fully human even as the Boy- Who- Lived that the stars spoke to them of clearly was.

"Very well," The centaur himself was now the one to bow, bestowing on Hermione the great honor of being recognized as somewhat of an equal by the leader of the herd. "We thank you for your gift, Witch."

..

Hermione had looked to the thestrals that Luna suggested they get to the Ministry on, with an apologetic look towards the curly haired girl, and balked at the heights they would no doubt have to fly to in order to remain unseen by muggles. Harry had offered for her to ride in front of him on his own, but she shook her head once she saw how small each of the ones that heeded their calls were, not wanting to weigh it down or injure it when they were doing them such a favor. She paused just before mounting her own pseudo pegasus- like creature as her wrist holding her charm bracelet warmed, scripting two simple words:

_Be careful._

Quickly tapping her wand to the charm before gripping the theastral's surprisingly thick mane and wrapping her legs on either of it's sides, she sent a brief message back to him before following an increasingly agitated Harry who looked all too much older than he should.

_Always. Delay Order for a while. Inform Tom and Lucius we are on our way._

..

Hermione observed the orbs of slowly churning vapor that had the potential to change, and have changed, so may lives due to the Fates blessing the right person with the gift of sight. Their small group having begun following Harry down the isles as he had informed them once they got further into the Room of Prophecy whispers of his name reached out to him in the midst of all these innocuous orbs containing such futures.

"I can hear it getting louder," Harry murmurs beside her, his wand held tightly to his side least Voldemort leap out beside him at any moment. As it was, he was rather jumpy at the thought that there should have been at least _one_ Death Eater around to moniter them. Suddenly he jerked to a stop in the middle of an isle filled with orbs on either side of them, their tags all blank except the one in which Harry had his fingertips just grazing. The others behind her all made a pile up, not having seen Harry find the thing in which they needed and bumping into Hermione who stumbled forward into the dark headed boy.

Hermione hastily tries to say, "Maybe we shouldn't touch it yet, Harry." Not knowing how exactly the prophecy would work or what it held, she did not want to risk the boy finding out something he should not.

But she was too late, the full of his hand engulfing it and bringing it down to hold it in front of his chest. The once calm and serene mist held within the orb grew bright and blinding, filling up the entirety of the aisle around them while Harry fell into what she could only call a trance. His eyes fixated on the orb with severely dilated pupils, not at all noticing Hermione's hand waving in front of him as he no doubt was enamoured in the words emitting from the mist. She looked over her shoulder to Ron at a loss as to what to do, but all he had to offer was wide eyes and shrugged shoulders. Eventually Hermione tried to take the prophecy from the boy, but instead was sucked into a tube of black herself, seeing nothing and only hearing the prophecy made by Professor Trewlawney fifteen years ago.

Once she was again returned to the world of the seeing and hearing, Harry's pale cheeks and blank face graced her while Ron and the others gathered around them within the small hall asking what they had heard. Quickly taking it from him and carefully handling it she tells them, "We need to leave. I don't think Sirius was ever here, and I won't doubt that Death Eaters will be very soon if they aren't already watching us."

Grabbing Harry's hand who now looked more lost than ever knowing that if he had listened to Hermione, who knew all along that her objections would be futile in the face of the _proof_ his only remaining family had been captured, they would not be in the danger they were in. The prophecy he had freely allowed to to take from him did not help his continence at all either. But just as they all turned back to the end of the hallway they had entered the aisle in to retrace their steps within the maze that was the room they resided in, there was a small crack that echoed around them, freezing them in their steps.

Harry turned to look around them and determine where it came from while hissing at them to quiet their whispers, but as luck would have it, Lucius, Bellatrix, and two other robed Death Eaters materialized before them within a black smoke. Blocking them in a square of robed figures and prophecies. Quickly grabbing Hermione who had somehow ended up in front of him, Harry pushed her between him and Ron who grabbed her waist tightly. But alas, it was too late to hide the orb clutched tightly in her hand, all the while her heart and body pounding with pent up adrenaline.

_At last Tom would have what he desires… but what would he do with it once he had it within his possession?_

Luna grabbed her free hand tightly, to while she then clung to as Lucius held out his gloved hand towards them. "Miss. Granger," he drawled in his deep voice not at all like Severus' but just as nice to listen to, "If you would be so kind as to hand me the prophecy, and we will be on our way." Harry took a step forward along with Hermione's own involuntary movement out of the other's grasps that was from years of obeying orders in the tone of voice Lucius had just used, the blonde looking towards her friend. "Just the girl moves, and then you will be on your way as well."

"No, Hermione." Harry whispers back to her, moving further to shield her body with his wand raised as if he could take four wizards so much more learned than himself, even if he did fall the Dark Lord by no technical fault of his own so many years ago. He did not see the shadows moving in between the gaps in the aisles beside them.

"Get ready to run," she had whispered before moving forward once more, knowing that he would pass the message along to the others behind him.

Hermione stood still for a moment behind Harry before shaking off the hands gripping her from all sides who sought to hold her back, and haltingly walked towards the bonde man as several other Death Eaters clad in their robes and bone masks materialized from their shadows. The soft light from the orbs around them caused the white as the sun masks to stand out against the darkness, making an altogether most frightening scene as Hermione knew not one of the Death Eaters outside of Lucius knew of her true loyalties. If Bellatrix, who was becoming more and more agitated by how long the exchange was taking, decided to fire a curse into their small group of students only he stood to make sure Tom's orders of no fatal harm was upheld.

"Hurry up, Mudblood!" The pure- blood witch sneered at her, raising her wand, "We do not have all day. The Dark Lord awaits his prize."

" _Enough, Bella._ " Lucius hissed over his own shoulder, his hand still outstretched towards Hermione who suddenly paused just in the middle of the two groups.

The words of the prophecy Tom had allowed to rule his life and eventually be his downfall echoed through her mind in full…

_The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the dark lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…_

Everything Hermione had done since her second year at Hogwarts had been to keep Harry alive and safe, but the concerns she had harbored all throughout the year returned to the forefront of her mind at this most important moment. One of her greatest fears just on the brink of the day. _That Tom would not uphold his end of their deal once he held this so incriminating prophecy in his greedy hands…_ She had not thought this day would come this soon, the day that she would have to choose between the two of her other most important loves in the world interests.

And with an impulsiveness that Hermione had never indulged in her life, she made a decision that could be the end to them all as she completely disregarded any thought as to the outcome of her decision. At this same time, Bellatrix also made a decision that would most certainly mean the end to her own life, and give Hermione the cover she most desperately needed to save herself.

Madame Lestrange suddenly let out an ear splitting shriek, "This is growing tiresome! Give us the prophecy, girl!"

Lucius turned to his sister- in- law, a sneer painting his lips just as the dark woman fired a spell into the crowd behind Hermione in her impatience, just as she had predicted, that set off the next chain of events of the most harrowing night. Hermione caught Lucius' eyes, locking them with her own as everyone from both sides of the dark and light began throwing lightening curses, spells, and charms both ways all around with the two of them as the center of it all. Deliberately raising her arm in the midst of the chaos, she releases the orb to smash it on the floor between them, his eyes growing wide in confusion and fear at her single handed actions in destroying what Tom had searched for all the year long. _Gone in a second, just like Cedric._ The smoke that released from it was lost within the scrambling feet and bright spells, and yet Bellatrix somehow realized what exactly had happened and shrieked even louder than before.

Bringing up her finger to her lips in the universal sign of _say nothing,_ Hermione desperately hoped he would be able to would know how to redirect the Dark Lord's no doubt impending fury towards Bellatrix. That he had not seen how the orb had become simply pieces of glass and fog upon the floor once Bellatrix began the duel that then took place with the children. She had every hope in his own Occlumency shields though, as well as his loyalties to those he loved above all else. He nodded his head before turning back to Bella, grabbing her around the waist to bodily pull her away from their failed mission, but not in time to redirect her wand from where it had been pointed as an opaque fog covered their fields of vision.

Hermione looked up to the shelves containing years of prophecies, and let out a large burst of magic towards the orbs just as she was simultaneously pulled back by a familiar pair of hands, as well as pushed from the front by a blindly fired purple colored curse.

The last thing she saw before succumbing to unconsciousness upon the floor of the Department of Mysteries, was a boy with wide green eyes almost as large as the glasses that framed them.

" _Hermione!"_

~.O.~

_Hogwarts, Iron Gate_

Dumbledore was once again occupying the formal title of Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, rather than his records currently reading that he was on _voluntary sabbatical._ Due to the unfortunate events surrounding Dolores Umbridge's unknown tryst into the Forbidden Forest and sequential run in with territoritoral centaurs who cared not one bit for those who worked within the Ministry, the majority of the Board of Governers that had been roused at this late hour ruled in favor of his reinstatement. Lucius Malfoy not being one of them as he seemed to be _out of the country_ on family business, but it was no matter. Hogwarts needed a Head, and Professor McGonagall simply insisted on the older man's return rather than taking up the temporary title of Headmistress at this pressing point in time. This moment in time having to deal with several students missing from their beds in their respective houses of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, as well as having word from Severus that the Order must be notified and sent to the Department of Mysteries immediately.

"Severus," Dumbledore asked the dark man who had his eyes fixated in the distance beyond the gate, not even deigning to meet the Headmaster's eyes and instead simply making a small questioning noise in the back of his throat in acknowledgement of the other man. Dumbledore frowned, "Tell me again how you know the Gryffindors and Ms. Lovegood had snuck out of the school, and met intended to meet Voldemort."

Severus finally turned around to meet his master's eyes, thinking on the story him and Hermione had hashed out before this night, with obviously a few alterations as the night went on. "Miss. Granger, ever Potter's babysitter and keeper had the forethought in sending out a Patronus charm to explain that Potter and his merry band of miscreants were on their way to the ministry. That Potter had been sent a vision from the Dark Lord that Black had been captured, and would be returned in exchange for a prophecy within the Department of Mysteries." Severus' brow raised, making it seem as if he had no idea where the orb in question was being held before this night and how exactly that information came to light. He was simply grateful for the minute distraction from his worry from Hermione, his love who should have sent him a message the second her and the other students were in the safe hands of Order members.

The lines between Dumbledore's eyebrows deepened, "And why did she send this message to you?"

Severus looked at him blankly, drily saying, "I had assumed she meant the message to be relayed to the first professor the patronus came across as I was on my rounds about the castle when I received the message."

Once again, the Headmaster opened his bearded mouth to ask yet another question on the girl, but was interrupted by the barking of a black dog that had suddenly come bounding up out of the darkness surrounding the woods. The older man had never seen someone's head whip around so fast as the Potion Master's that night, his wand already in the air and unlocking the heavy iron gate to admit those of the Order that had picked up the children from the Ministry. Nor had he ever seen someone walk so fast as to be just on the brink of running and yet not have it called that once each of them saw a curly headed figure being levitated at the forefront of the group. Albus had to admit, the other man's teaching robes made quite the majestic figure while being splayed out in such a way behind him.

As Severus came closer to the girl who was being levitated by Lupin, who should have known better than to do so without knowing which spell she had been cursed with, he himself cursed most foully beneath his breath once he saw the cause of her cries and nonsense words. Blood saturated her shirt from collarbone to hip, a gaping wound with tentacles of black veins already creeping up her neck and the visible skin of her chest that could be seen. To which the sight gave Severus the feeling of his heart dropping to the deepest bowels of the earth when she let out a wail of pain, the children within the circle of Order members watch wincing at the now- too familiar noise.

"Drop her," He barked at the werewolf, giving cause to several wide- eyed looks from those within the Order as well as the students who had all had eyes fixated on the bleeding and crying girl. When Lupin hesitated, he once more repeated himself with significantly more vitriol as he slid his arms beneath her floating body to just grazing her in preparation of the drop, "Drop her, Lupin. As a former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, you should be aware the affect outside magic can have on a body that has been afflicted with an unknown curse. I shall say it once more. Drop. Her."

Hermione, whose body had since felt as if it were being dipped into fire at the same time as an ice bath, opened her eyes once she heard her precious love's voice garbling through her muddled brain. _Severus,_ she tried mouthing as her eyes sluggishly attempted to blink out the blurred spots in front of her eyes, but found she could not speak as well as she thought she could despite the easy cries and screams that escaped her mouth from time to time. Her voice long since simply rasping the sounds as opposed to the screaming that it sounded within her ears, moving alongside her loud heartbeat. Using the last of her strength, she shot her arm out to grab the closest length of fabric from the black shape emitting Severus' low voice, finally clearing her throat into scratchy whispered words.

"It hurts," she whimpered to Severus who had finally been allowed to fully wrap his arms around the wounded girl, feeling her miniscule weight within his arms as he continued up to the castle at the highest speed he could without jostling her body too much. Ron was then left to be supported by Ginny and Neville to make sure he didn't run off in his magical octopus brain influenced high to which he still had purple sucker marks covering his face and neck as Harry and Luna followed closely behind Severus. Harry was close enough to hear their small interaction once they were once again within Hogwarts grounds, "Make it stop, Severus. _Please,_ " Hermione continued talking as if drawing strength from Severus to stay awake even as she felt she could fall asleep forever. "It hurts so bad."

The boy glanced at Luna, who herself did not seem surprised at the other girl's familiar use of the professor's name but instead grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly to silently convey that Hermione would be perfectly fine.

"I will make it stop," Professor Snape told the girl, ignoring Minerva's outstretched arms ready to take her cub to the infirmary herself as Hermione was suddenly seized with the thought that he would, for some undeniable reason or another, leave her to her pain alone.

"Don't leave me," she cried, cheek digging into his snake embossed frock buttons. "Please, don't ever leave me."

"I will not leave you, my girl. I promise."

All the while, Harry says nothing in the wake of this absolutely mind fuck of a revelation regarding his best friend and, previously, most hated professor. Although, as he watched Hermione sleep to make sure her chest kept on inflating right back up after exhaling, he was not all that surprised to find that his previous suspicions were correct. His sister did indeed have the same depth of feeling towards the dark man as he had towards her.

..

_Hermione lay in a magically induced coma prescribed by Severus who had not allowed even Madame Pomfrey to work her healing magic upon the dark curse causing fiery pain across the small girl's chest. Whether it was from his heightened sense of knowledge regarding the subject or he did not trust anyone other than himself to heal her, she did not deign to hazard a guess. She simply wanted the never ending pain to lessen even a little bit so that she could think anything other than…_

_By the gods… How did it come to this? Is it penance for the things she had orchestrated that led to a boy with beautiful kind grey eyes to be gone from this world forever… for the things she would undoubtedly be subjected to do in the future and be the creator of? But how could the gods fault her for her infinite love for the three men she held in higher regard than she could ever hold herself?_

_As Severus had lain her upon the small cot within the Hospital Wing just feet away from the beaten and battered former Headmistress, he told her of his intentions as she descended into a sort of delirium, and just before she fell into a dream like state acting out a story her mother had once told her when she was a child, her eyes blurred everything into obscurity. Into a state of something of a fever dream. Two heads of black becoming one, panicked green eyes and calm reassuring black seeming as if they had merged into a resemblance of a dark devoted blue._

" _Tom," she had whispered so low as those two men who had morphed into one had never heard the name, and only what she said next, "Please don't leave me. I am sorry."_

_Harry, don't leave me…_

_Severus…_

_And then, she fell into her story dream that she had not heard for more than ten years. A story dream that allowed Hermione to think that maybe, her mother herself had a touch of magical Seer blood for how close her favorite childhood story was to her life now._

..

_Once upon a time, there was a beautiful maiden named Anei. One day, as her parents watched her from their little seaside cottage, she ventured further down the white beach than her parents had thus far allowed her to go. She had always loved the sea in which she had grown up beside, with all it's white fine sand that had a tendency to smuggle into her thin shoes she more than often abandoned beside her parents to keep an eye on. She especially loved high tide when the roiling blue waves would splash powerfully over her feet and calves, trying it's best to knock her over in vain before she quickly dug her feet into the sand so as to beat it. Sometimes though, she would deliberately let it win, laughing when her dress would get soaked with sea water from the waist down and cause it to stiffen._

_It was one such day that while she laughed at how powerful Mother Nature could be when, as she got back up to her feet to continue her game with the playful sea, that as she dug her feet into the sand once more she was aware of a stranger watching her from the treeline. Although Anei called him a stranger, it was more that his physical appearance was as unfamiliar to her as the people within the village who she never saw very often asher and her parents lived on the very outskirts of the village that was a mile away through the forest, no one venturing this far away due to the salt water being undrinkable. But they relied on rainwater that was more that enough for just the three of them._

_Now, this man had come to their home to watch the couple's precious only child play with the waves she loved so much, with his head cocked to the side in a familiar yet unfamiliar way. Only to startle him as she trustingly, with the innocence only a child could muster up, approached him just to say hello to the only other person from the village she had seen in weeks other than the occasional couple coming to the beach for a midnight tryst._

_This man's name was Tihomir, and he wasn't the most talkative of people, so he continued to stare as the small girl as she smiled at him in welcome to her home. As Anei looked up to him in silence, fearless in all her little glory, she studied his handsome face waiting for him to say something. Perhaps why he had decided to watch her play in the waves with such abandon as he had never known before, even when he himself was a child. Moments passed that felt like an eternity to the two people caught up in their own little world. Then, at exactly the same moment, they smiled at one another, and that was the start of their lives together._

_Years later, as Anei cradled her and Tihomir's first little beloved babe in her arms, and feeling warmth encasing her heart with golden tendrils of love, she looked up into her husband's dark eyes with her own caramel ones, and asked him if it was fate that had brought them together only to give them such happiness as she felt in that moment._

_He smiled a secret smile, and indulged in his love's woes._

_Know this though, this is not the end of their love story- these two strangers living out their days in peace beside the coast's edge. Anei's innocent use of the word_ fate _bringing up memories of many lives past they had lived together, and would continue to live together until the world ended in ash or ice never to be reborn again._

_We all start out as strangers in life as these two had, but their souls had always recognized each other when reincarnated throughout the ages even if the people's meat suit were unknown to one another. The mated soul bound by unseen tendrils of magic would always find a way back to one another, no matter time or circumstance._

_It was simply the will of the Fates._

..

Hermione woke hours after Severus had induced her sleep, her chest feeling much more cool and yet still sore and slightly painful when she moved her hand to hold Severus' who had fallen asleep by her side. She fell back into a peaceful sleep once more to dreams, the story of the Fates and how alike she was to Anei all those years ago and Severus to Tihomir.

_Could the story have had some truth to it? That certain people's souls were so entwined with those of who they have loved in so many lifetimes, that nothing could break them apart? Soulmates… what a wonderous thing to imagine… never being ripped from their one true love…_

She then woke the next day, grey light shining through the Hospital Wing's windows that signified the early hour. She heard Harry's low voice beside her, although it seemed as if her ears were slightly clogged no doubt due to the potions Severus had to force down her throat making her thoughts and senses fuzzy once again.

"I'm am sorry, Professor." Harry told the man who had yet to let go of Hermione's hand which lay in plain view of anyone who would chance a check- in on the girl. The green eyed boy had simply glanced once to their touching hands and said not a word of them before apologizing to the professor in a low tone so as to not wake his injured friend, in vain though it was. "I am sorry for sticking my nose into your pensive, I had no right to do that and I can only hope you will forgive me. I know that they were extremely private, and something you had not wished for others to see without your explicit permission."

Severus held a blank expression on his face for the duration of the boy's apology, thinking all the while that at least Hermione had impressed the right way in which to word certain things on the boy. That apparently all her years of beating manners into her two dunderheaded friends was not _completely_ useless at least on this one. His face softened slightly as he felt the now awake Hermione squeeze the tips of his fingers, all she had the strength to do in her weakened body at the present time. He nodded to the other boy, turning back to meet Hermione's drooped but open eyes.

Harry too turned to his friend, surprised to find her awake already and looking to the dark circles beneath his own tired eyes, thinking all the while that he finally looked like the man he was now acting. He skirted around to the other side of the bed, her eyes following as he grabbed her other hand, two of her beloved men protecting and keeping her afloat in the land of consciousness on either side of her.

"Hi, 'Mione." He whispered, carefully brushing a wild curl from her eyes where it had fallen as she looked to him. "I am glad you are awake even if you should still be resting."

She smiled tiredly at his sweetness, "Hi, Harry."

~.O.~

Hermione sat in front of a soft eyed Dark Lord, Nagini curled around her comfortably warm as his eyes traced the new purple addition to her chest that peaked out from her low cut robes, her skin all together still too sensitive to be covered by even a thin layer of cotton. She wished she could be rid of robes all together, but that would not at all be proper outside of her and Severus' rooms. Only weeks healed, the curse she had been gifted with was mostly healed, the black poison veins that had crept across the majority of her torso being banished all together with Severus' superb efforts. Although, he told her that it would never fade from the dark purple it was at this point in time, the extent of the curse having initially been fatal but due to the redirected and distracted caster, she had lived to deal with the wounds. Hermione welcomed the lingering pain if it meant not causing the agony her death surely would have of all the friends and family that loved her.

Tom had been very patient with her, reigning in his impatience and curiosity that came with Lucius' account of the night within the Department of Mysteries even as she could tell he was just as anxious about her well being as bursting at the seams to learn what the prophecy had foretold. He had spent enough time wondering Hermione decided, and despite his obvious care for her well- being, she had to ensure Harry's as well, and uphold Lucius' account of that night if they were to escape Tom learned they had lied and betrayed him.

_All to save Harry… for Harry who was in the most danger out of them all if he were to earn of the truth…_

Tom had sat beside her, his fingers trail lightly on the edge of the wound while she hissed in slight pain, feeling Severus stir in the corner from where he watched them, "You are well now, my girl? Severus has taken good care of you?"

His worried eyes meeting hers, she smiled softly, grabbing his hand to keep it from moving it deeper beneath her robe along the purple line as she had an inkling he was itching to do so. "I am well now, my Lord. A few more weeks and I will be free of this lingering pain." Her hand came up to brush his cheek, his eyes fluttering closed and then open once more with a sigh. His eyes had floated into the distance for a moment, reminding Hermione of the time when he had first told her of the existence of his Horcruxes. She wondered if the broken and blackened remains of the once golden chalice boasting the Helga Hufflepuff badger on the corner desk of his rooms had held a piece of his soul. As he had yet to inform her which objects were indeed his Horcruxes just yet until they were at a point to begin restoring them all to his body, she could only speculate that these sojurn's into foggy thoughtfulness were due to pieces of his soul being re-joined to the one currently residing within him, once having been imprisoned within his teenage diary.

"Now," he came back to himself once more, shaking his head slightly with slightly downturned lips once he met mer eyes once more, "Lucius has told me of his observations that night within the Ministry, but you were the one to have been cursed. Will you tell me if Lucius was correct in saying Bellatrix was indeed the one to curse you?"

Hermione met Lucius' pale eyes that held her's from where he stood beside Severus, her mind drifting much like the man in front of her had just moments ago to their brief meeting when she had arrived at Malfoy Manor.

" _Everything that you have done, and will do, has been to protect Draco and Narcissa, Lucius." Her eyes pleaded with him to understand why she had destroyed the prophecy as Severus walked the dark halls to inform Tom that they have arrived, "Can you understand that I have done what I thought necessary to protect everyone I love as well? Not simply for selfish reasons and a want to betray the Dark Lord?"_

_To protect Harry as well as Tom… and her belief in his goodness, to take away the one thing that might have shattered her belief in him forever… killed them all…_

_The Malfoy family patriarch grabbed her up in a gentle hug, mindful of her still healing wounds no matter how he wanted to hold onto her and convey in silence that he understood completely why she has chosen as she did. That she has protected those she irrevocably loved even from their own selves, not simply speaking of the Potter boy and his oldest friend, but of their Dark Master as well. Hermione noticed another anxious looking blonde so much like his father waiting for his own reassuring hug from his friend just down the way Severus had left, as well as the boy's mother who smiled at her sadly._

_Lucius whispered in her ear, "I do what I have to to protect those who I love as well, Hermione, and I have considered you as a part of my family now ever since the first day Severus brought you here to meet me and Narcissa. You need only ask for my help, and it will be given to you."_

_Hermione's eyes watered, winding her arms as tight as her scar would allow on the larger man before releasing him to greet Draco and Narcissa who had only last heard she was within the infirmary due to a dark curse. But as she let loose of Narcissa from the soft hug the older woman had given her, Hermione entered the room in which Tom and Severus waited for her in confusion. The Malfoy mother having grasped her hands with teary eyes, absolving her of anything she felt the need to do, granting her forgiveness._

But now she knew as she answered Tom's assertion, "I am afraid that Azkaban simply has not done any favors to poor Bellatrix's mind, my Lord." And as so, she knowingly sentences the woman to death at the end of a green light, much like the end she had intended for her last living Black cousin and failed to execute due to Harry's last minute spell he told Hermione as she had lay in her hospital bed. "She lost her temper during the exchange, and began firing curses towards me. As I was confident in her following your orders of no harm to the Hogwarts students, I was caught off guard by one of her stray curses and dropped the prophecy once I was felled." Hermione's chin fell slightly, knowing as Tom already felt her pain as if it were his own, he would be more inclined to forget any anger towards _her_ for being the one to allow the fragile thing to break. Hopefully redirecting any lingerings towards the death of Bellatrix to which she did not feel particularly remorseful about, and also being disinclined to preforming Legilimency to hear the prophecy for himself on such a weak girl he so loved.

"That is unfortunate, but no matter. She will be dealt with in due time." His eyes were once again on the brink of madness and drifting thoughts, and Hermione hurriedly spoke to bring him back to her.

"But now, would you like to know what the prophecy has foretold?"

His eyes turned greedy, the free hand that she still held within her own squeezing her fingers in anticipation. "Yes, I would very much, sweet girl."

She looked Tom in the eyes as she lied to him, telling him the exact wording of the long awaited prophecy he had allowed to once more rule his life, allowing her to put him on the exact path that she wished him to go on. With these words, Hermione would make sure his devotion to her was never put into jeopardy by any future actions he may go through with in regards to Harry. Although, Tom's previous words of immortality still weighed heavily in the back of her mind, would their immortality include Severus as well?

_"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him… but the Fates have marked him as the Dark Lord's equal in all magics…for the combining of their goals will bring about the end to all those who would defy those blessed magical creatures..."_

Tom closed his eyes in pleasure at finally knowing what would ultimately be the end to his search of immortality, the last piece of the puzzle. His hands framed her face, allowing her to look into the blue eyes she so loved. "Thank you my sweet, sweet girl." He kissed her lightly on the lips before releasing her, "Take her home, Severus. I have much to prepare for before we steal the boy away from Dumbledore. Much, much planning for the stone, the cloak, and the wand." He smiled widely at Hermione with the whitest teeth, "We have much to prepare for, my girl, once you are well. Restoring one's soul is hard work, and you will be the one to keep me sane through it all."

_All safe… Harry safe from death… Tom safe from his aims of obtaining power… her love for both Tom and Severus safe from everything that would harm it… for now…_


	29. 6th Year Part One

" _You may be as different as the sun and the moon, but the same blood flows through both your hearts. You need her, as she needs you."_

~.O.~

_DEPARTMENT OF MYSTERIES BREAK-IN: DUMBLEDORE ORCHESTRATED?_

_Just weeks ago The- Boy- Who- Lived once again has called out cries of He- Who- Must- Not- Be Named. According to a source within the Auror Department, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Grand Sorcerer, former Supreme Mugwump and Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot had called in a report of several Hogwarts children sneaking away from Hogwarts and into the Department of Mysteries at the behest of He- Who- Must- Not- Be- Named. To which they were then greeted by several suspected Death Eaters and were possibly put into mortal danger, as the wounded Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's best friend and once girlfriend can attest to. The girl supposedly having been felled by a Death Eater's spell, she has been confined to the Hogwarts Infirmary until further notice. The- Boy- Who- Lived and his supporters once again swear that the Dark Lord has risen again, something in which they have sworn to ever since the tragic events surrounding last year's Triwizard Tournament where Hogwarts student Cedric Diggory died honorably within the last competition._

_There have been numerous speculations as to whether or not these events have occurred as Mr. Potter has said, or that Dumbledore, the once defeater of the last Dark Lord Gellert Grindelwald, has primed his prize student to say in an effort to draw back on the attention that had been fading through the years to other topics than themselves. It seems as if The- Boy- Who- Lived has retained his attention seeking behavior most seen within that Triwizard Tournament that he subsequently won, a most appalling behavior that has been enabled and maybe even edged on by his esteemed Headmaster. We at the Daily Prophet, as well as those within the Ministry, are inclined to believe that events Mr. Potter have said was the work of the Dark Lord, have in fact been by the disorganized dealings of his loyal followers in which have escaped the Aurors. The subsequent events all coming to public light in an effort to kill the boy who killed their former master._

_Former Minister Cornelius Fudge, who has since stepped down after the events of the Triwizard Tournament and now the Department of Mysteries break- in to make way for Pius Thicknesse, remains steadfast in disagreeing with the rumors of He- Who- Must- Not- Be- Named returning to the land of the living after Mr. Potter defeated him as a mere babe fifteen years ago. The currently esteemed Minister for Magic concurs with his predecessor's statements, as well with the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement that they are making headway in catching several of those of the Dark Lord's followers and throwing them to the mercy of the dementors of Azkaban. Going further to explain that these rebellions have been attributed and organized by Azkaban escapee Sirius Black, his cousin Bellatrix Lestrange nee Black as well as her husband and brother- in- law, Rodolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, and several other high ranking Death Eaters closest to the deceased Dark Lord._

_To see a picture of our new esteemed Minister for Magic, please reference the dashingly handsome and goateed picture below._

_In other news regarding the most esteemed Wizarding school, Dolores Umbridge, former Undersecretary to Cornelius Fudge, High Inquisitor and temporary Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has retired to St. Mungo's due to injuries supposedly sustained during her tenure as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor…_

_Daily Prophet:_

_Rita Skeeter_

~.O.~

_Summer between 5th and and 6th year at Hogwarts_

Hermione sat in front of the mirror in her bedroom of Malfoy Manor clad in her white ceremonial robes, watching as Narcissa twisted her hair up into an elegantly looking curly bun that she herself could have never imagined being her own hair. Or putting up herself as it always seemed to be in an eternally frizzy curled state that the blonde woman had tamed into some semblance of order. This was to be the day of her Marking, of her committing wholly and fully to Tom's cause, and she didn't particularly know how to feel about it. Anxious? Happy? All emotion she seemed to name that she was actually feeling was rudimentary and not exactly true, as if she could not possibly find the name to what the butterflies fluttering around in her stomach meant. It could have been either.

She raised her eyes to the woman behind her from the pale and emaciated rat missing a hand that she held like a baby in her arms, being careful not to jostle or jar her head lest she be poked by the innumerable pins being hidden in her curls. The Malfoy matriarch who she so loved had been quieter than her usual self since Bellatrix's death just days earlier, Tom finally deciding to end the unending screams from the dungeons below the house. Although Hermione had hurried things along as she saw Draco's mother losing her spark and ability to speak over the weeks Madame Lestrange had been tortured for almost killing the Dark Lord's most favorite girl, and being the end to the prophecy as well that he had very much wanted in his own hands.

Finishing feeding the rat just as Narcissa completed taming her curls, she allows him to crawl reluctantly back into the cage it had spent the last year in darkness and loneliness within the basement of Severus' Spinner's End home. Conjured food and water on a daily basis could no nothing for the madness that came to it's mind in it's loneliness after all. Going to her bedroom door to emit her orange menace of a familiar, he immediately sprinted to the caged animal once the handle was turned while the creature squeaked in fright as the Kneazle pawed at the ward Hermione had erected to keep him from eating the smaller animal. Hermione shook her head at Crookshanks' antics as his paw visibly bounced back from the bubble around the cage, long suspecting that the tomcat simply liked playing with the ward more than frightening the former animagus turned rat.

Taking a seat beside the mother, her legs dangling sideways over the edge of the bed so as to not dirty it with her ballet flats, she asks, "Do you regret giving me and Lucius consent to tell Tom of Bellatrix's actions within the Department of Mysteries? To send her to her death?"

Narcissa looks to her with gray eyes so similar to her son's, the only thing that he seemed to have gained from the Black family along with the name depicting a constellation, being the epitome of Malfoy genetics with the signature hair and attitude. "I do not regret Bella's death, although I do miss her sometimes. The way she was as a child before she put the pure- blood mania our family instilled into their children over even her own sanity, and it had only gotten worse after she had returned from Azkaban." She paused for a moment, looking down to her twisting hands before raising her chin once again to put on a wobbly smile, "Are you nervous for your marking then, Sweet?"

Hermione shakes her head, grabbing onto the other woman's hand as she clearly read the anxiousness on her face, "Are you nervous for _Draco's_ marking? Is that why you have really been upset, since Tom announced it?"

The blonde's expression spoke of much relief and gratefulness that Hermione was so intuitive so that she herself would not to have need to find a careful way to word the question, she twisted her slim fingers between the gaps of the younger girl's. "Yes, I am anxious for him. He is only a boy, you yourself are already seventeen."

Hermione smiled understandingly, if her parents ever figured the extent to what she was pledging herself to they would most likely still call her their little girl who had no business committing to such a thing. Even if they knew the reason for what she was doing it for.

"Have you changed your views in the past couple of years, of helping to resurrect Tom? Do you regret it?"

Narcissa looked down once again, "No, but my worries are still the same. I worry that Lucius and I will not be able to protect Draco from the Dark Lord if we were to somehow fall from favor once more, that we will not be able to protect our son. That we can not protect him if he fails the induction mission he is set."

"Do you truly believe that I would allow any harm to come to Draco at all, Narcissa?" She asked the concerned mother who looked to her with the most vulnerable expression the younger girl had ever seen grace her face, "That I would be able to _let_ him fail anything the Dark Lord sets him to?"

She pushes Hermione's ever sentient curls that had fallen onto her cheek further back from her eyes, smiling waveringly, "I know how much you care for Draco, and no, I do not believe you would let anything happen to him if it were in your power to stop. But the Dark Lord does not take orders from anyone, Hermione. How could you be certain that you would be able to, despite everything you have done for him, and how much he seems to care for you?"

Hermione smiles a secret smile, her own slightly wavering lips betraying her no longer hidden nerves at the nights preceding that were not too far away, but she told Narcissa the truth. She was not in a state of nervousness for her Marking, but for the other event of the evening that Tom had informed her of just hours ago with anxiety written on his own face as if terrified that she would deny him.

_She could no longer deny him anything any more than she could deny that she loved Severus… or Harry..._

All the while, Narcissa looked to the young girl the previously aloof and cold Dark Lord seemed to love above all else, even above his own goals, and pitied her slightly at her absolute belief in the goodness of the Dark Lord. That she was more the Dark Lord than the Dark Lord himself at the thought that she could protect anyone other than herself from those much stronger than themselves. But all thoughts of these were wiped at the girl's next words of her own loyalty towards her family.

"Lucius and I had a conversation the day we came back to Malfoy Manor, did he tell you of it?" Hermione smiled at Narcissa's confusion, "He told me that we all became family the day that Severus brought me to you, and I intend to stand by that statement. You three are as much my family as Severus and my parents are."

Narcissa grabbed up the smaller girl up in a hug while laughing gleefully, "I've always wanted a little girl."

Hermione laughed along with her, squeezing her back as they both fell back into the pillows covering the bed, slightly jarring Hermione's carefully made hair. "Maybe Draco will give you a little girl one day. Can you imagine him walking around trying to figure out how to put tiny pink bows in a little girl's hair?"

Neither of the giggling women, who were now free of nerves due to their somewhat emotional zig zagging, heard the door open to the boy in question. Both of them jumping as his drawling voice interrupted their gleeful attitudes, "What exactly are you two mad women giggling about in here?"

..

Hermione and Draco stood before Tom within the Malfoy Manor Ballroom, facing towards a small black sea of the amassed Death Eaters here to welcome the two new members into their ranks. Even if they had not known the girl was privy to more information in the last couple years than those twenty years her senior. The inner circle being made up of mostly the heads of the Pureblood families and their oldest children who bore Dark Marks, many of whom Hermione already knew the names and faces of during her year of attending meetings being cowled herself, she could pick out the builds of many who were in attendance. Even as Hermione had insisted on a private ceremony with the identity of the Dark Lord's smaller shadow being revealed at Draco's own ceremony, the bombshell dropped on her just hours ago that had contributed to the nervousness Narcissa had seen had prevented that.

_She never had been one for crowds… even leading Dumbledore's Army… and how could this one possibly trust their newest member who was the sister of the boy who felled their Master…_

_Patience…_

Looking to Draco in all his bare muscular chest normally hidden behind suits recently cut in the style of his father, she could feel the anxiety running of his own body as she grabbed his hand in just as much for his comfort as her own. Being that there have been issues with hiding the Dark Marks residing upon the forearm while within company in which it was better to be concealed, Tom had decided they should be moved to a place not commonly seen within the wizarding world as it were in the muggle communities. Once they were in a position to fully show their mark in like company, a simple spell uttered on the body part desired was to be said. Thus, Hermione was able to feel the warmth spreading from Tom's hand as he placed one on her shoulders bared by the low cut dress robes she wore herself, his other on Draco's taller shoulder. Looking up to the blonde boy, she smiled reassuringly into his gray eyes as she helped along to at least alleviate his tension by allowing a small amount of her magic flow from her hand into his, something Severus had taught her long ago from her long hours of studying slumped over books. Her love having stripped her bare and commanding her to lay on the floor upon her stomach as he lorded over her, giving her massages filled with his signature dark and satisfying taste of magic as he dug his thumbs between her shoulder blades and kneading into her stomach.

Turning once more to look into the crowd, she sought out Severus' build closest to her in the midst of the dark figures. As attuned to his magic as she was, she immediately picked him out with a little help from the glowing eyes staring at her from beneath his hooded cowl, the Death Eaters having done away with their bone masks in like company.

Taking a deep breath, Hermione pointed her chin forward in all the confidence she did not particularly feel as Tom squeezed their shoulders, signaling the beginning to their evening.

"Brothers and sisters, today we are gathered here to welcome two new members into our inner circle." His voice bounced off and echoed throughout the lovely marble and stone decorating the room, "Being the beginning of a new generation of Death Eaters, and those who are the first to be marked since my resurrection, I have made a new Mark to showcase their devotion to me, as well as our cause." He paused to allow Hermione to stand off to the side, Draco falling to his knees gently in preparation of his new bodily accessory, "Draco Malfoy, son of our loyally marked brother and sister Lucius and Narcissa seeks to follow in his parent's footsteps, willingly taking the newly minted Dark Mark upon his body and committing his lifeblood to us."

From where Hermione stood just behind Tom at his shoulder, the newly designed mark took ink within the middle of the blonde boy's back, and just between his muscular shoulder blades, the likeness of Nagini emerged to paint a beautiful contrast between the midnight tattoo and Draco's white skin. Much in the same way the original Dark Mark's snake twisted in and out of the skull piece, this revision did the same with it's own length of it's long body as it inverted it's slithering pathway, the head of the deadly snake hissing out it's long tongue along the back of Draco's neck instead of towards the end of a wrist.

Helping Draco to stand upon unsteady feet, the pain of the marking having felled him to both his hands as well as his knees, Tom allowed him to join the crowd and the arms of his now un-cowled parents before motioning Hermione to stand before him just as Draco had done. Replacing his fingers that caressed the smooth skin of her collarbone, she was short enough and he tall enough for her curls to reach the bottom of his chin, allowing him to speak once more to the crowd above her head.

"Hermione Granger, a muggle- born by right and blessed as first of her line with magic by the gods also seeks to enter our ranks." The figures amassed murmured lowly throughout the ballroom, never having heard their Lord speak in such a way that contradicted their strenuous views on blood purity. Although, it seemed much had changed along with the decrease in fatal violence within the past year, and they made no assumptions as to the punishment they would no doubt receive should they speak out against this new regime. They would have to adapt.

"The friend of Harry Potter, the boy who will soon enough be made to see our new way of being, and the girl responsible for resurrecting our Order to its former glory now seeks a place among us as well." He paused, always one for the dramatic effects of anticipation could cause. "As a reward for the loyalty she has shared with us, she will be marked as our heir and successor." A shocked silence rang throughout the room like none before, her eyes meeting his blue ones over her shoulder as he simply smiled at her with all the calm in the world as if he could not feel her pulse beating wildly beneath his palms. As if he were simply giving her a trifling gift she never in a thousand years would have guessed at before his unmasking of his plans just hours before.

"She will be bound to us by blood, blessed with all the power that my esteemed bloodline of Salazar Slytherin has been passed on to me. From this point on, she will be answered to as if she were I myself in my absence, obeyed, and loved above all else. Once we have gained the Potter boy and all his power, his allegiance, we will finally be invincible against those who do not share our aims, all thanks to this young woman before me. With these decrees, Hermione Granger willingly takes her mark made within mine's own image, until the day should we both perish from this earth." With these words, Tom motions Severus up with one pale hand, telling Hermione and him both to kneel, Severus guiding Hermione down with a firm grip on both her forearms.

"I love you, Severus." He smiled at her calmly, always the rock where she felt as if the tide of her emotions would whisk her away. He kissed her lips just as the cold tip of Tom's wand lightly touched the middle of her back, the low cut of the dress allowing him easy access to her own spine.

"It will hurt, my dear girl." Tom says above her, all the while Hermione focusing on Severus' dark eyes. Then the pain started unlike any other she had felt, her eyes closing when it began to resonate throughout her bones all the way to her magical core residing just beside her soul.

Her eyes dropped to the floor as if she had no control of them, watching as Nagini, who had been wrapped around Tom's ankles during Draco's initiation, slithered between her and Severus' knees once her head fell to his shoulder to keep herself from yelling out at the excruciating pain centering on her spine. Centering on her blood that felt as if it were just on the cusp of boiling her alive and her bones jumping outside of her skin. All she could see was the white marble floor the green and purple snake was slithering between, a most feminine hissing of a voice fading into her ears as she fell into a deep slumber she would not awaken from for several weeks as her new magical bloodline settled into her veins.

" _My new Mistress, true family at last. Together forever, as Master says._ "

Severus caught up Hermione's limp body within his arms once the ritual was completed, all Death Eaters lowering their cowls at the very rare and powerful magic their Lord had performed on their new illustrious Lady, at the power the girl must hold for living through the rare and dark magic preformed upon her very person. As Severus stood, each member of Hermione's new servants marveled at the fading red veins covering the girl's pale skin that could not hide the whitest mark they had seen, a mimicry of their new generation's Dark Mark made in the same color that graced their Dark Lord's forearm. The room fell to it's knees as the Dark Lord's highest esteemed sister and Lieutenant passed by them.

Nagini following on Severus' heels to watch over her new Lady in her most vulnerable state, the limbo she was held in as her unique magically signature recreated itself anew in the image of her loving Master's.

_She will be most powerful indeed, Salazar Slytherin's dark blood saturated with power throughout his children's bloodline for hundreds of years… she will be even more powerful than his last born son..._

~.O.~

Over the course of many weeks, Hermione's blood would boil within her veins, causing them to redden upon the surface of her skin and writhe as if her new family's crest animal were making it's way throughout her body. Her skin would pale a shade lighter than her own, her most beloved lion's mane Severus so loved waking to in the morning darkening to a color it should not have been until she aged several more years, her cheekbones sharpening themselves subtly to give her an appearance more like the Dark Lord's himself. She could be dubbed a sister much like how Ginerva Weasley had each of her brother's similar aspects within her face, although unique in her own way.

It was not until she awoke, that the eyes Severus so loved had revealed their new brightly shining golden color as well, so similar yet different to her previous whiskey colored ones although she retained the cat- like pupils she loved on herself.

Severus stood above her as Nagini lifted her head from where she had curled around the girl's feet at the foot of the bed as they both heard her breathing change, just before those changed eyes opened slowly. The dark man grabbed her twitching hand, feeling the slim bones curl around his own, breathing out a sigh of relief at her infinitely more visible signs of life after almost a month of simply seeing her breathe in and out. Not even the barest hint of a twitch from behind her eye lids to signal dreams weaving tales in and out of her mind were to be shown to his worried person.

"Hermione," his deep voice made it's way into her ears, eyes still blinking the weeks of blurry sleep from them before he came into focus.

"Severus," her raspy voice prompting him to conjure a glass and water to slowly tip into her mouth until her stomach cramped with it's emptiness, craving food which he hastily called a House Elf to arrange. They said nothing until the small creature popped back into the room with a tray, bowing shyly to it's new Mistress and popping right back out to inform the Dark Lord of her new state of consciousness. As Hermione ate with gusto, silver fork clinking on fine china, she observed her worn and bearded love. "I quite like this look on you," she told him as she ran her fingers through the thick fur covering his lower face, telling of how long she had been asleep.

He grabbed up her hand himself, kissing the tips of her fingers before smiling softly with all the love he had for her bleeding through his small actions. "Don't get used to it, I simply did not have time. I wished to be by your side when you awoke."

She smiled as she finished her meal, the House Elf suddenly popping back in as if she had an eye on them the entire time. "Missus and Master of Potions are wished to see Master after Missus is well enough." Then the creature popped out of existence with the silver bed tray.

Hermione looked back to Severus who had not taken his eyes of her, smiling hesitatingly as she asks, "Do I look so different to you, Severus that you must re-memorize my face? Do you love me still?"

He smiles down at her, reaching out to twirl a newly shaded curl around his finger before allowing it to bounce back to her shoulder, "I would love you girl if you looked the twin to my own self."

She laughs at him, remaining slightly raspy still while reaching out to grab his face in a kiss, "Well, my love, I would be very much happy if I were to wake to a version of your handsome face upon mine, so much as I love you."

"I find that impossible to believe." He chuckles lightly, running his finger over her cheekbone. "Would you like to see it?" Conjuring a hand mirror, he allowed her to grab it from him.

Hermione was not at all startled once she saw her new features, Tom having told her that the ritual would most likely not simply change her blood so as to tie her to him by magic, but everything in between as well. As she stared into the mirror, she had to admit she did not look drastically changed from her previous self, something she blessed the gods for as she knew it would have caused much notice if she were to return to her friends with black hair and blue eyes. An absolute twin to her new brother. It simply seemed as if she had grown into her looks in a very short amount of time. From her face, her fingers ran down to her pearl necklace that was now stained black with the maturation of her core finally done. Closing her eyes, she felt the dormant power just rippling along her skin just waiting to be tapped into, as no doubt Severus could feel as well.

Placing the mirror on her bedside, she moved her covers to the more wrinkled part of the bed and twitched over to the edge to put her feet on the plush white carpet. Severus stood in preparation to help her stand, but instead she grabbed him around the waist, burying her face into his just as wrinkled shirt as the bed sheets.

"Have you gotten any sleep since the Marking?" She murmured into his stomach as his arms wrapped around her shoulders in his own hug.

"Every time I would lay beside you I couldn't help but keep watching your face, running my magic over you make sure you were still breathing." His deep voice said high above her head, fingers digging into her curls.

She looked up to him as he finally got her to her wobbly feet, having to hold onto her waist to steady her before she could even attempt the walk down the stairs to Tom's study in the silken nightgown that twisted around her ankles. As it was, he might just end up having to carry her down.

"Nothing like that will ever happen again, Severus." She held his cheeks in her hands, digging into the blackness featured there, stained with a few premature grey pieces of thick hair. Thinking all the while that maybe she did look slightly like him as he did Tom, "I promise, I will never let you feel something like that again."


	30. 6th Year Part Two

" _I can sense your love, why leave me in darkness? Beguile me for your amusement stealing your soul without kisses. You are the sun and I, the moon. Your beauty is reflected in my eyes. When we are apart, I am extinguished in the blackness of these skies."_

_~Kamand Kojouri_

~.O.~

Severus did end up having to carry her throughout the Manor as her borrowed dress trailed before his feet on the ground, growling at her in false irritation as she continued to reach up and play with his beard, giggling tiredly all the way to Tom's study. Seeing as how she remained weak in the knees, she had bathed with the help of Severus, who did the gentlemanly thing of letting her wrap around him with her hands buried in his hair while he cleaned her own, dressing once more in another of the gowns Narcissa had given her as her skin continued to be as sensitive as the aftermath of receiving her scar. The scar which still marred her chest no matter how the magic flowing through her veins changed the rest of her appearance.

They find Tom sitting before his fireplace, carefully watching his familiar and Hermione's orange menace curl up together as if they had always been the best of friends. Brother and sister just as their Master and Mistress respectively were now. Crookshanks lay dozing in Nagini's bodily curls as the snake's head faced the fire, eyes closed in enjoying the heat even as they both came to attention with Tom's voice greeting their Mistress.

"Hermione!" Tom rose from his visibly anxious perch in the purple velvet armchair, causing Crookshanks to detangle himself from Nagini and pounce readily on Severus' legs to paw in the direction of Hermione who he still held within the air. "Welcome back to the living, my dear girl. You have kept us waiting long enough to see how your new features would settle."

Severus laid Hermione on the love seat, allowing Nagini to wind around her feet in welcome and Crookshanks to carefully curl himself up in her lap. Kissing her familiar's head, she tried her way through parseltongue for the first time.

" _Hello, Nagini. I see you are as happy to see me as much as our Tom, aren't you, my love?"_ Hermione heard herself hiss to the snake who looked up to the happiest expression she had ever seen on such a reptile.

" _You are my Hermione now, Mistress, too,"_ The green and purple scaled snake who must be some distant descendant of the basilisk with her beautiful skin wound around the curly haired girl and the orange cat, her large head coming to rest on Hermione's pale shoulder, flicking her tongue out to taste the magic upon her skin. " _Thank you for giving my Tom a family, he has been so very lonely these years with no familiar blood to confide in as he should, no matter how he denies it. We love you."_

Hermione looked to Tom with smiling lips, her brother's face taking on an interesting yet unfamiliar expression at Nagini's words of loneliness and _family._ If he had previously thought the ritual simply as something of a reward to Hermione for her loyalty, he was much mistaken as his familiar's words suspiciously warmed him to the heart in a way he was very confused about. Never before having felt a connection such as he did now after gaining something that he had lacked since the very day he was born and his mother left this world, his last connection to a person who might have truly loved him, if she did not love his birth father even more than her unborn child.

_A family to call his own… something he had always wanted yet dared not give thought to since the days he was picked over at Wool's Orphanage…_

" _I love you too as well, my sweet."_ Hermione said stroking the snake's head before turning back to a now composed Tom, switching back to her native tongue while reaching out to stroke the cheekbones not very dissimilar to her own. "And you, Tom."

He smiled at her, Severus silently watching them all the while from Tom's vacated chair, observing Hermione's happy face. Never before would he have thought he would be, _within good spirits_ wasn't the right feeling, but more _content_ in the fact that his love was now of the same blood of the master who had killed his first love. The red headed woman he believed to be in love at the time at any rate, but even so. He simply observed as he always did, analyzing his feelings and basking in the youthful glow Hermione put into the air that he had long lost. Or never had if he were to be honest with himself, never as carefree as she was at this point in her life.

"How do you feel with your new bloodline?" The Dark Lord asked her.

She smiled as bright as she could manage with the weariness still suffusing her bones would allow for, "I am very honored for what you have given me Tom, to be of your blood."

"It was the only reward I could have given you that would match the blood you spilled in order to give me life once more, to give back what I had borrowed. Besides, Salazar Slytherin's line has been too decrepit for too long, it could use the honor _you_ bestow onto it. Only you could be worthy of the magic that now runs in both of our veins," he brushed a hand on her cheek as Nagini transfers herself to him, having felt the drooping of Hermione's shoulders from the weight of her body. "While it may not exactly give you more power than you have, the darkness saturated throughout our line allows for more of a limitlessness to our options. A sort of, affinity towards all types of magic we would choose to try our hands at I would say, some that have been unsuccessful for others." He smiles slightly, "Such as the making of Horcruxes, and the restoration of them without losing our control and going completely mad or succumbing to the pain." He stands suddenly, "Which brings us to the other reason I have brought you here so soon after your awakening, I would like to speak to you of the remainders of my Horcruxes and our movements concerning Dumbledore, as well as Harry Potter."

"Of course, Tom," she looks to him confusedly as she observes his jerky movements, his previous lightheartedness gone from his face and body.

_The bloodline helping to stave and numb the madness within… not rectifying it entirely…_

"You are agitated, I would like to know of why."

He rolls his shoulders back at her words, motioning to Severus to stand, "You may take my place, Severus. I can't imagine you would wish to stay your touching, especially at this point in her awakening and can finally touch you back. I have to admit, your short jittery minutes away from her side made even me anxious when giving me progress reports outside of three feet from her side."

Severus grabbed Hermione's hand as he sat beside her while Tom took his own seat once more, raising her eyebrows at Tom's sudden mood swing. Her dark man simply shrugs his shoulders in a rare moment of non- understanding, the tension of being even in a different chair as her so soon draining from his own body. His eyes turning indecipherable as Tom began outlining his plans having to do with two of their _friends of the light._

"I have given Draco a task to complete," he continues, "To repair a Vanishing Cabinet currently residing within the Room of Hidden and Missing Things, unless Dumbledore has removed it since the days I was student at Hogwarts. The sister to this cabinet is being held within Borgin and Burkes, to which several Death Eaters will make their way into Hogwarts once the twin had been mended." He then turned to Severus as the couple listens attentively, "I know you have long since begin to despise Dumbledore, Severus, so I thought that your own long- overdue reward for aiding Hermione in my resurrection would be for you do do away with the meddling man yourself." Hermione's love's hand spasmed within her own smaller one, causing her to hold it in both of her's to hide the involuntary reaction to Tom's nonchalant words. Her brother continuing seemingly oblivious to his sister and servant's actions as well as the reasons behind them to his words of this gift, "When the time is right and we have every opportunity to do so, Dumbledore must be a non- issue when it comes to taking Harry Potter by force if you, Hermione, can not convince the boy to join us willingly. Which I find highly unlikely despite the clear words of prophecy, and as much as I abhor the need to interrupt your schooling, we must act as soon as the Vanishing Cabinets are linked once more. Dumbledore and Potter must be within the school, together, for optimal timing in putting our plans into motion." Tom glanced quickly between the two of them before turning back to Severus, "Now, what do you say, Severus? Will you take this gift? It is no consequence either way, he will die by one wand or another, but if it were to be done by your hand, he will not suspect any wrongdoing previous to you taking his wand for yourself."

_Do you mean this punishment, Tom… do you mean to punish Severus by way of unconsciously gifting my love the means to kill the old man he had spent fifteen years serving… building ties to? Will you punish him for loving me… tormenting his soul to punish me as well? Is your sudden swing into erratic movement due to ordering the killing curse upon the man who introduced you to the magical world… do you care at all for all the lives you have taken?_

_I can not love you any less in any case…_

Severus kept his face carefully blank, all the while keeping his hold on her delicate hand, "I would be honored to complete the task, my Lord."

Hermione stared up into the profile of his noble face, no doubt thinking the same as he was. That he will take on the task to spare the old man, who he both loved and hated, the pain of being killed and played with by some other Death Eater once he was disarmed and magic bound.

Tom now smiles brilliantly himself, traces of Hermione now in his face as he was in her's as if he had been gifted a much wanted book he had been searching for for ages, although it quickly was discarded for a frown. Turning to Hermione who sat thinking what was going on in that intelligent head of his where obviously many thoughts were roiling around in and continuing with the depiction of his neatly laid plans, "Good! Now, as to the subject of my horcruxes. As you both know, I have thus far restored three pieces of my soul. My diary, which you had found me inhabiting, Sister, the Gaunt Family ring which I have gifted you," He said leaning over to her, grabbing up the hand which boasted the piece of jewelry proudly, "And lastly, Helga Hufflepuff's golden chalice shortly before the debacle at the Ministry, which I am sure you saw the effects upon my mind then." He smiled ruefully at Hermione, knowing he had carried his mind away to a place he never would have entertained out loud in other circumstances, but as it is, he was as glad as could be to the response he had garnered.

_Together forever… forever and ever ruling side by side… and happily ever after..._

"In addition to these three, I currently have two not within my possession, the golden locket of our house, and Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. Although, I do have one living one," he held out a hand to Nagini who then wound herself around his arm with a hiss, "The one within Nagini, but as the ritual to restore the horcruxes to my own existing soul is becoming increasingly painful for me, I would like to leave her as more of a fail safe, as I am not very eager to put my girl nor myself through that pain just yet."

He continued stroking the snake's scales in imitation of Hermione's now freed hand currently running her fingers through Crookshanks' purring fur while Nagini hissed, " _But I would freely offer myself to you, Tom. If you sought to restore the piece of your soul resting beside my own, I would endure the pain. Although, I very much would miss you whispering in my head."_

The familiar's words niggled Hermione's brain for something long forgotten within the depths of her bag, but she could not grab the thought resting just on the tip of her tongue.

_Whispers in your head, such a thing to sound insane, but what if you were not? Would that make you the sanest of them all?_

"I would ask you to retrieve my diadem, Hermione." Tom told her, "This too being within the sister to the Room of Requirement, it rests on the head of a greek statue. You must search for it a while, as I hid it deep within the room, but it would be for nothing to hide it somewhere easily accessible as I am sure you agree." He frowned once again, exuding a melancholy yet angry aura once more as he fell into the deeper part of his mood, "In the mean time, I must search for my locket which had been stolen years ago by Regulus Black." He pulled a golden necklace boasting Hermione's new family crest in green from his trouser pocket, all the while Hermione's eyes widening and flinching backwards at the familiar piece of jewelry. "Loathe as I am to admit it, I have no clue as to where this piece of my soul has run off to once the boy disappeared with it."

Hermione suddenly released both her familiar, who gives her a disgruntled look and settles into Severus' lap, as well as her love's hand to begin searching in the beaded bag which she had somehow pulled from thin air. Both men watching her raising their eyebrows at the show of magic as she finally grasps the very thing that had whispered to her so long ago without fanfare, holding it before Tom's absolutely startled face that turned into a smile that could have shamed the sun.

_Thank the gods she had been in that house when she was… imagine if someone had gotten ahold of this singular piece of Hogwarts Founder history that could control Tom… what horror…_

…

Hermione lay upon her bed, and Severus who weaves his magic in and out of her own where it had become restless on the surface of her skin, soothing it back to dormancy like a cat needing attention satiated enough to simply be content in laying spread out against your body rather than constantly head- butting you. She couldn't help but think of Draco despite all the other thoughts swirling around her head, couldn't disregard the dark circles beneath the blonde boy's eyes clearly speaking to the reasoning behind Tom's orders. No doubt her brother had given him the full explanation as to why he must put his all into repairing the Vanishing Cabinet, which combined with this worry for her did nothing to soothe him into the leep he most needed.

_Her and had Severus left Tom to stroke his locket, his request to Hermione asking her to watch as he restored this horcrux floating around in her brain as they found Lucius, Narcissa, and Draco each waiting in the foyer. The three Malfoys making a pretty picture all together the way they were. Severus having to still support her slightly, an arm about the waist, he was caught up in the hug Narcissa bestowed upon her as well as she told the younger girl how happy she was to see her finally awake. Lucius simply placing a kiss to her forehead and concurred with his wife's statement, but Hermione couldn't disregard the fact that they both had slightly dark under eyes not hidden behind glamours just as Draco did._

_But Draco's were the worst of all the Malfoys she saw as he grabbed her up as tightly as he would dare, although she did let go of Severus to squeeze him all she could as well, allowing him to take her full weight before returning to her love._

_The boy pulled back with a relieved smile, clear nervousness of his task etching itself onto his face warring with the relief he felt to see his friend awake. He tried his best to hide his worry though as he scanned her body, "Must I call you, my Lady now?"_

_She laughed lightly, arms still wrapped around his neck as he spoke into her hair, "Maybe every now and again. It would do wonders for my self- esteem, but then again, it probably would be best to not allow my ego to become as large as yours."_

_She and Severus then made their way back up to their room to the sound of Draco sputtering in a way totally unbecoming of a young Malfoy. Lucius giving him a disapproving look at the sounds issuing from his son's mouth._

Hermione began her never ending questions of Severus with the easier one, much easier to answer she was sure than the one she so desperately knew she needed to ask her love even if neither of them had no inclination to speak of it. The question of a certain bespeckled and long bearded wizard would have to wait for a time that would allow Hermione to ease into the question, with all the good that it will do she knew as it would hurt no less than if she came out with it bluntly.

"What do you think of Tom restoring his horcruxes, Severus?" She asked him while tracing the outline of his nipple through his thin shirt. Tucked into bed as they were in a rare moment of privacy and non- responsibility without either of them being called to work by any masters or friends, nor the pressures of a limited time together this time they had was a blessing. Tom having insisted they be left alone for Hermione to recoup from being called out of bed to early after waking, so Hermione and Severus took this time to relax in a way they had not been able to in a very long time. Or relax as much as they could while talking of matters they would rather not.

He was silent for a moment, staring up to the ceiling before answering, "If the Dark Lord intends on becoming the Master of Death by searching for the Deathly Hallows, it is perhaps the best course of action to restore his soul so that he will not have objects laying about that could be potentially used against him in the future. No matter that they are separated from his own body, the potential that their being destroyed in permanency instead of being bonded once again to his existing soul, could possibly drive him mad."

She raised her head to look him in the eyes, her eyebrow raising once he looked down to her, "He has been mad for a very long time, Severus, as I believe you are aware. Restoring his horcruxes has only caused more temporary insanity, yet I do believe you." She put her head back down while closing her eyes, "Even if he can not physically feel his remaining horcruxes laying about the world, I do think if they were somehow destroyed in permanency rather than restored to his remaining soul they would cause him more pain than that of bringing them back together. Pain that would drive him truly insane."

"He is madder than anything at this point if he believes we can truly win over Potter, achieve his loyalty to the man who murdered Lily and James." His deep voice began lolling her to sleep, to which she fought desperately as her heart squeezed suddenly, remembering the words of prophecy she once held right in her hands.

_And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…_

Hermione knew that Harry would never join the Dark Lord even if Tom had the power to bring back the parents he had once told her he never even had the chance of loving, but could only love the _thought_ of what his life could have been if they had not died. Now, like such a familiar feeling that she knew would plague her mind throughout the year until Tom's plans came to fruition, she felt an overwhelming sense of utter helplessness. Severus stroked her magic once again soothingly with his own as it surged once more upon the surface of her skin.

She asks him quietly, "Would it have been easier? Simply trying to keep Harry alive if I had told Tom of the true prophecy, rather than what I am going to have to do after we have invaded Hogwarts? Easier than trying to gain his trust in something stupidly impossible?" Severus remained quiet, "Would Tom have risked losing my love if I had told him the truth?"

He put his chin back on top her head, "We will never know what he would have done, girl. All that I know though is that after all these years of trying to keep the boy from killing _himself_ due to all the foolhardy things he has had to endure, I believe that you have done the right thing in everything so far. And since I know you have thought it before, I do think that you have done the right thing in joining the Dark Lord as you have. The boy would have been leading a truly dangerous life in an altogether different way than he is now if you had not stepped in as you did many years ago."

Hermione chuckles lightly, even as a question springs to the tip of her tongue. "It seems like a lifetime ago." Once again she closes her eyes from where they had been staring at the vase of flowers on the dresser across the room, laying her hand on Severus' chest to feel his inhales and exhales. For fear of her question being realized, she has stayed her hand in giving voice to it out loud, but now she lacks the strength to keep it bottled up inside her stomach for much longer. "I need an honest answer to my next question, Severus. I know you never lie to me about anything else anyway, but this question is especially important. Do you think that with Harry's ability to access Tom and Nagini's minds as easily as simply falling asleep, is it possible..."

_If Tom should ever find out… that's always what we come back to, those words… if Tom should ever find out… not a What If, but If Tom… we could never give voice to these words… never ever… but we must… it will eat us up inside… from the inside out like a flame to tissue paper… ourselves gone in seconds up in a flame…_

Severus allows himself to finish Hermione's question, such as he knows her completely from head to toe, "If Tom should ever find out, that Harry Potter holds a piece of his soul beside his own?" Hermione let out a harsh breath, covering her eyes with the hand no longer feeling him breathe. "Sometimes, it is better to not speak or think of such things, should our thoughts become someone else's. For the lot of good it does trying your best to control someone else's thoughts."

She continues to breathe deeply before quietly asking yet another question, "Is Dumbledore one topic we should not speak of?"

He is silent long enough to tell her that maybe it should continue to be unspoken of, before he speaks even quieter than before in a just audible whisper. "I don't know if I could do it, Hermione, when the time comes. I don't know if I will be able to _mean_ it. Dumbledore took me in at my lowest point, at a time that I would have killed myself for the part I had in killing Lily, such is the failing point of members of the light. They still hold on to the hope that people can be redeemed in some way, and in ways I despise him for that sentiment, of believing that I could be good. But in another, I have loved him for it. Loved him in the same way that I loved my bastard of a father, but in a different way also." He looks down to her, stroking her cheek, "You are not inherently dark, my girl. The choices you have made to join the darkness have come from the need to protect those you love, even if some do not deserve it.'' Hermione suddenly grasps his hand, kissing the palm of it instead of interrupting him like she so wanted, yet stayed silent as she knew he utterly believed each of his words to be true. "My choice to serve once again may have been because I love you, because of the _right_ reasons as Dumbledore would put it despite the fact that it is the dark I have given my true allegiance to this time around. But years ago it was out of my true desire to feel the intoxicating power the dark could give me, no matter how I wanted to tell myself it was simply a means to an end to be a powerful wizard that someone like Lily could love more than James Potter. That I would be _enough_ for someone to love for once in my young life."

Hermione felt tears lining her eyes as she buried her face into his chest once again, the silver drops overflowing in her own feelings at the knowledge that it could simply possibly break some part of Severus to kill the headmaster she had never particularly liked. But Tom had given him a gift for his allegiance, and if that gift were to be given back, all Hermione had worked for to keep them safe would be for nought. No matter how she would like to believe in the goodness of her new brother, believe in the love he seemed to have for her, the thought she had once before of love simply not being enough cropped up in her head once again. And Severus knew that just as well as she did when he had given his answer. Once again, as one thought follows another, the familiarity of it all crossing her mind allowed another that came up all too easily since the first mention she had heard of Tom intending to be master of death, a recurring fear that had been instilled into her bones that caused a spasm whenever she thought of Tom's aims of immortality which everything eventually boiled down to…

_Would Severus be one part of herself that would be included into Tom's aims of not simply becoming immortal for himself, but as a way to keep her at his side forever… ties of blood simply were not enough if it would only last for a hundred years out of a hundred thousand…_


	31. 6th Year Part Three

" _There are all kind of Love in the world, but never the same Love twice."_

_~ F. Scott Fitzgerald_

~.O.~

The ritual would take place on the night of a full moon, the night where they could connect most with Mother Nature and ask for her help maintaining the pain Tom and Hermione both knew was coming. He had explained to his sister that the pain of restoring his horcruxes was becoming something unlike anything he had ever felt, a thing that paled in comparison to what his soul felt as it was ripping itself apart for the first time over fifty years ago. The repairing of his soul, a thing more painful or just as how childbirth could make you feel as if you would never stop crying in a millions years.

Tom stood within a large ringed star of white candles when the moon was at it's highest peak within the sky, a pentacle made of wax and fire that would center all energy within himself so that none would dare try and escape. So that the piece of his soul contained within the locket he had dangling from his fingers would not attempt to flee from the imminent pain being brought upon it in the bonding to it's other half. The dark trees whistled high above them all the while, with the Mother singing their hearts calm as could be on this tense night as the owls hooted to each other in the darkness.

He looked to her bare chested and straight backed, standing at the heart of the pentacle, bright in the flickering flames with an expression in his eyes he would never show written upon his face. A fear he could never show for want of allowing someone to think him weak, but Hermione was now his blood, and she could see all the pieces of himself that he would never show to any other person. She was his sister in everything now, magic as well as blood and he could never hide anything from her ever again.

"You are ready, Tom." Hermione smiled reassuringly at him in her long black dress that was being pulled behind her to show her sharp hipped silhouette by the roughening wind, "I'll be right here the whole time, to take away some of the pain if I can."

He nods to her confidently, saying not one word that spoke of his nervousness as he picked up a silver knife dug into the earth and slices his palm with no change in expression.

_A little nick of a knife will be nothing compared to the agony to come after all…_

Dripping it over the face of the necklace baring Slytherin's crest, he whispered an incantation unknown to Hermione who could hear nothing but the whining of the wind and her heartbeat thundering in her ears. The clasp opened, and it was as if the world stopped, waiting to see what big bad thing would come slithering out of the golden cage it had lain in for decades. Decades in angry loneliness, only a shadow of it's former self that had been bright as the sun and pure as starlight.

It had the taste of blood and iron staining the air, a potency of pure magic that you could never taste again with the same purity more than once as the black fog like _thing_ fell around Tom's fingers as if a harmless fog. Much like the way of Nagini it wound it's way around Tom, bleeding it's way into his ears and mouth like the rewind button on a tape as it shifted from where it had tasted the bare skin of it's Master's chest.

All that was left after the frozen look now etched itself upon his face was the ominous hooting of the nocturnal birds, watching Hermione as she tried her best to keep from calling out to her brother.

_How could someone stand so still… as if encased in eternally cold ice…_

Then the screams began, startling Hermione so badly she took a step back as Tom fell to his hands and knees, head bowed as a dark wave of his magic flew in an outward spiral and into Hermione. The soul magic apparently recognizing like blood so close to it and broke the meagre barriers and wards placed upon the pentacle attempting to suppress it, winding wisps of it's magic around the sister as well as brother. Buckling to her own knees and clutching her head at the potency of it all, her fingers buried in her curls for long minutes until Tom's voice cut through her ears, bringing her out of the mindlessness and slight whispering within her head.

"H-Hermione," she rose her head to find him with his hand reaching out to her, laying on his stomach while his fingers just about touched the salt the pentacle was made of with the fingertips digging into the dirt. Crawling to him and moving her fingers just on the other side of the white lines to not disrupt what little control they had, she was framed by the sweltering heat of the candle flames reaching high towards the tree branches, closing her eyes and focusing her fluctuating magic to dance around his. Whispers sounding of a familiar cold and angry voice still circling her brain, making it hard to concentrate as her vision blurred on her brother's face.

"I'm right here, Tom." She whispered to him, although she knew he could no longer hear her in the few minutes of pain his horcrux wrapped him up in while it stitched itself back together deep in his body. She soothed him as best she could, although it would only be a drop in the ocean compared to the agony he would feel the rest of the night until the full moon no longer shone high and bright above them. He would sob and sob like a babe for it's mother, spasming with the nerve endings that felt as if they were frying inside every inch of his body, Hermione matching each one with her own screams so they sang in harmony into the night even if she did not feel even an inch of pain he did. For the love she bore him, she would scream the world down around them.

_Just as she would for Severus… or Harry… or Draco… what was pain to the love she held for each of the men in her life?_

She fell into her magic, and his, and lay with her fingers just across the line separating them with Mother Nature watching as two of her children bound themselves together in a way they could not comprehend after this night. As brother and sister slept once the piece of the wizard's soul bound itself to his body once more, released from it's gilded cage, the fates made their mark on both of their souls. Something that even they could never rewrite as they branded their futures into their very magic and souls, bonding them together like none ever before as Hermione's heart burned with the brand it now held.

…

They awoke to an early morning grey sky, their hands bound together across the broken salt line in their sleep. Tom woke first, finding Hermione laying on her stomach with one hand under her cheek to keep from inhaling dirt into her nose from beneath her. Rolling onto his back to look up at the sky, careful not to jostle Hermione's hand or arm, he groaned at the gods awful headache pounding with a herd of hippogriffs right on the most sensitive meat of his brain. Feeling his sister's slim fingers tightening slightly on his own, he came back up to his hands and knees to crawl his body beside her, looking at her face as she began to wake herself. Tracing her features with his eyes, and then the tips of his fingers despite the migraine threatening to put a hole through his skull, he thinks that she could be one of the most beautiful woman he had seen in all his years.

_His very long years that would only become uncountable as they succeed their goals…_

This moment was as if he had fallen into some sort of fever dream, his skin hot while he remained cold on the inside as his mind muddled itself helplessly as his soul settled into his magical core once more. Unknown to him that it had been whispering to his sister's all through their dreaming sleep. But despite everything, Hermione's eyes within her beautiful face that had marks of himself now written upon it's surface opened glowingly perfect, and they were clearer than anything else surrounding the two of their bodies and the fuzzy edges of his peripheral.

His hand came up to brush away her curls from the cheek facing the lightening sky sticking needles into his eyes, sticky from dirt and tears as he asked,"You will be my girl forever, won't you Hermione? You will never leave me? We will live together forever?"

Hermione looked into his clear blue eyes that rippled as much as the waves of the sea, "Of course I will, Tom." She herself was muddled slightly from sleep and the ritual of the previous night that had been completed only a little while ago once the moon faded from above them completely, off again awaiting its time to shine once again. Their magics twined and danced together where his fingertips gently pressed on her cheekbone, still and unmoving as even that tiniest of movements were not the best of things at this moment in time with his headache. As she looked into her brother's eyes, Severus came to her mind.

_I promised Severus forever… my mind, my body, my everything for as long as we lived even as we made no vows to bind us together… but blood is forever in the scheme of things, as is the love I have for him… for them…_

The man in front of her resembled a lonely child who had been abandoned long ago by all family members and had no one else to love except those he made into his own blood, who had no idea as to what true family does for one another. His simple concept of the word only gaining the knowledge that they stuck together no matter what, and what his mother and father had done to him was unforgivable.

She took a leap of faith to alleviate the worries she had, knowing beyond anything that she was bound to this man in front of her before anything now that she had allowed him to mark her with the same blood as he. As well as whatever had affected the two of their magics this last night beneath the full moon and the sight of the gods. She was perhaps bound to him more than she ever could be with Severus or Harry for all the love and hate and all other unnamable emotions she felt towards him at times.

She mimicked his actions on his own face while saying, "Of course I will always be your girl, Tom, and I will never leave you for as long as I can help it." She hesitated before maintaining her courage, "But what of Severus, Tom? Will our forever include him as well?"

He looked at her in that same small child way when an adult asked them a question that should have been completely obvious, he told her, "Of course his forever will be just as ours. He is yours, and you are mine, sweet sister. We will be together forever, laughing in death's face as a mockingbird laughs at the crow."

Hermione simply smiled brilliantly, kissing him full on the lips while surrounded by the watchful and intelligent eyes of nature. Of the Fates.

From that day to the day Hermione left to the burrow for the remainder of the summer, so as to reassure Hermione silently that his words spoke truth that night, he began his comfortable touches with Severus as he had always done with her. The first time it having been a brush of a shoulder against shoulder, Severus starting as if he had maintained a small shock to his system to which Tom ignored even as his eyes found Hermione's loving gaze settled upon the two of them across the dinner table surrounded by the Malfoy Family.

~.O.~

Severus dropped Hermione off at the ramshackle yet cozily comfortable home of the Weasleys, the familiar scents of meats and vegetables cooking on the stove top mixing with the spicy flavor of the redheaded family's magic staining her tongue as it permeated even the field. Not even the sweet grassy smell of the acres of plant around them masking the witches and wizards that lived right in the midst of it all. He had kissed her deeply as they stood in the midst of the field of the seven foot high wheat field before walking her to the door, clutching her to him and him to her before placing his forehead upon her's. They would not have much time together this year, even if it seemed as if it would become the quietest of all since they first were introduced to Hogwarts, but they each had responsibilities that would take much of their free time from one another as well in this time. Hermione having not forgotten her promise to Narcissa in helping Draco mend the Vanishing Cabinet, she also knew that it was to be a very hard and time consuming task.

Severus sighed before releasing her, adjusting the collar of her jacket to cover the bite scar he had branded her with months ago and had taken to renewing ever so often, just as she had done to him. Glamouring it hidden just didn't seem to feel like the right way to go about hiding the mark of _mine_ in any case, if someone so happened to see it, so be it _._ "I love you, Hermione." He said while kissing the corner of her mouth once more, giving Crookshanks who she held in her arms one last scratch on the head and chin before turning away.

She smiled at him, watching as he disappeared back into the golden wheat, "I love you, Severus."

Making her way through the field towards the brown Burrow just visible through the thin stalks surrounding her, Crookshanks lept from her to chase a gnome that had been peeking it's small little head out of a hole in the ground in Mrs. Weasley's herb garden. "Be careful, Crooks!" She called out to him, knowing he was perfectly fine knowing his way around the house and it's land enough to find his way back before dark.

As she finally made her way through the mud her shoes were sinking into, Hermione was greeted at the door by a smiling Molly Weasley and a warm hug, although Hermione could see that the ends of the normally bubbly woman's lips turned slightly downwards. Following behind Ron's mother into the kitchen, Hermione suddenly thought of Percy, whom she had heard from a passing comment from Severus had now given his loyalties to the Minister for Magic over his own blood. She frowned, knowing that even those who in the wizarding community who valued power over anything would be remiss at the older boy's actions as many and most Pure- Bloods were notorious in sticking with their blood no matter the consequence. That fact that he had practically disowned them over a minor disagreement between her brother truly being alive was of no matter even as it was his thinking they wanted any and all Ministry employees to have towards the truth of their cause, or at least those who were not on the side of the Dark Lord. Any reputation Percy would accumulate as the right hand of Pius Thicknesse would be sneered at by those who still upheld their acquaintances by the old manner of doing things, by gaining power so blatantly and disowning his family in such a public manner was indeed a disgrace.

Molly had been babbling away while Hermione was stuck within her thoughts, stirring a pot by hand even as she normally allowed magic to do take care of the household chores and cooking while she tended to something else. "You certainly have grown into your looks, Hermione. Ron and Harry have both just simply shot up into the air since summer began."

Hermione was stalled in her asking the mother if they had any contact with Percy at all since he was elevated to his new position, thinking that perhaps it was best to simply let it go as it would only make the other woman begin to cry at the least. "Harry is here already, so early?"

Molly looked over her shoulder, her previous shadow of melancholy seemingly having vanished as she began talking of her youngest son and the boy would should be called her son by any rights as she had practically raised him as well as her own red headed children. "Oh yes dear, the Headmaster dropped him off just last night. Apparently he needed him to run an errand with him for the Order, and Albus decided it was best to just bring him here after they were through. You know him, he never puts all his eggs in one basket when you ask where he goes all hours of the day, as he says, safer that way."

Hermione didn't comment, knowing exactly what Dumbledore thought of giving his eggs to the people he said he trusted most. She just began helping to set out the plates and utensils on the table in the living room, as she is such a hopeless cook when anything is sitting on the stove, as Fleur flies into the room causing Hermione to jump slightly. She lifted a hand to her beating heart, not having heard the Veela's light footsteps outside the door, only Ginny's as the redhead appeared behind the blonde while she tried her best in smothering Hermione's cheeks in kisses and rapidly speaking to her in french. Hermione giggled and gasped once Fleur practically shoved the promise bonding ring the oldest Weasley son had gifted her into the curly haired girl's face. Ginny watching all the while as the two girls spoke, a disgruntled yet jealous look written upon her face at their obviously close relationship stemming from their shared language.

...

"Do you, as of yet, have any ideas as to what the connection between Harry and Voldemort is, Severus?" Dumbledore asks Severus who sat before him within the dark office confines of Grimmauld Place, voices wafting in beneath the door as the other Order members congregated within the kitchen, Black's voice loudest of them all in his laughs. "I admit, I have searched all throughout the summer for clues as to why the bond exists, and I have gotten nowhere. You are now the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, surely you have found something of use? Perhaps even a comment from Tom himself?"

Severus continued to watch the Headmaster with the perfect mask that had never seemed to crack since the boy had become a spy for the light, Albus remembering the last time he had seen any emotion at all written across his face. The day he himself found the boy holding Lily Potter's cold body in his black clad arms, an infant boy screaming at the top of his lungs sitting beside the teenage boy with his long fingers grasped tightly in the baby's own chubby hand. Although, his eyes had since told a different story while his mind and mask remained impenetrable when looking at the girl who Harry Potter so loved himself. Even if the younger boy did not see himself how he loved her, he had more than once told the older wizard they were simply friends, like brother and sister. Nothing more existing between them.

The Headmaster continued to observe the darker man's face for any sign of deception, gently probing his mind for his thoughts but finding nothing more than possible texts full of information running through the surface thoughts of his mind. Severus all the while, so attuned to his Occlumency shields as he was after years and years of being constantly vigilant raising his brow to the Headmaster and his _attempts_ at subtlety.

"I have no idea as to what the connection could be, Albus. You need not probe my mind for possible information I would not willingly give to you should you but ask."

The Headmaster allowed his face to obtain a bashful facade, although his eyes maintained a sharpness that had no business being there in regards to the question. After all, Severus was his most loyal spy, what reason would he have to withhold information that may help to fulfill the prophecy that set everything in motion in favor of the Light? To avenge the death of the woman he once loved, a situation which had allowed him long ago to remove his rose colored glasses when it came to the misguided and tainted _glory and recognition_ the dark gave to the most powerful within it's ranks. "I apologize, Severus, it has become a habit. I would also like to tell you that I will be beginning private lessons with Harry, that will benefit the Order of course."

The dark man once again rose an all to active brow, hearing the undertones to the words _for the Order_ that usually meant code for _reasons known to only me and the boy, and should it become relevant to you and your role in this war between the dark and light, you will be informed._

All the while, as Severus simply rested his gaze on the much older wizard while nodding to say he understood, Dumbledore's brain turned at his spy's words.

W _ould you really, Severus? Willingly bow to the curiosities of an old man… would you give out information on the girl that seems to be permanently glued to your side as well?_

~.O.~

Hermione greeted Ron and Harry properly once lunch had been consumed and bellies were full, having followed both boys into their room to no doubt hear the gossip of how Harry came about being dropped off by Dumbledore himself just the night before. Although, Harry did seem to have been looking at her weirdly all throughout the quick lunch where she had talked to Fleur in rapid French for the most part, receiving a grateful look from Bill who most likely was glad that his future wife had someone to talk to in her native tongue. Even Hermione, who only ever talked to her grandmother and father occasionally in the language, had loved to speak to them in the beautiful dialect one must speak in for the nostalgia of it all. Fleur also voiced her own gratefulness herself as well, having moved from all her French speaking family and home country. The messy haired boy all the while watched his best friend's animated face laughing in her faint accent, the thought that there was something within her face all together different from the normal familiar shape of it.

She had simply smiled confusedly at him once he had caught her eye throughout eating their meal, not knowing anything that could have possibly caused his newfound curiosity in her face. Having not seen him since the end of term while held up in the Hospital Wing after their initial short conversation on how she was feeling as well as his apology to Severus, he had been sent on his way along with the rest of the Hogwarts students back to their parents and guardians. Dumbledore insisting that, no, he could not stay the few weeks Hermione would be required to remain at the school for want of supervision, the only professors remaining being himself, and Professor McGonagall as well as Madame Pomfrey tending to Hermione with the occasional check- in by Severus. Apparently the boy could not wander about the castle aimlessly under no supervision whatsoever when not by his best friend's side who he had been so worried about during the hours of not knowing when she would wake up. After all, only so many expectations could be made for the Boy- Who- Lived.

Listening to Harry as he explained his being picked up from is Aunt and Uncle's home in Little Whinging just the night before by the Headmaster, only to be taken to the temporary home of one Horace Slughorn, Hermione became just baffled as to why Dumbledore always felt the need to keep inconsequential secrets. Even from those who are seemingly helping him along with his goals, and are actively involved. Secrets that gave nothing away regardless as to the aims he was concealing, or was simply something he could very well give up and have nothing but his all- knowing ego be damaged. He couldn't even inform Harry as to the position their new professor had agreed to hold, and as she informed both boys herself that he was indeed going to be their new potion professor, they looked as confused as she felt. He would never hold a candle to Severus who was infinitely more knowledgeable than the older man who had been his own Professor in his Hogwarts years, who did not hold the title of Potion Master. Yet again, Dumbledore had also informed Harry of a future task the boy must be aware of without divulging all the facts. An assignment of obtaining something from the man to which Harry currently had no idea as to what he would be spending his valuable time on.

_It was absolutely no wonder as to why Tom's old professor had been lured back to Hogwarts… Dumbledore once again showing he could have done well in Slytherin as he dangled The- Boy- Who- Lived right in his face all to get the outcome he desired… the Potions Professor being an avid collector of talented peoples simply being common knowledge to those who knew him…_

"Dumbledore is also going to be giving me special lessons, but he won't tell me why. As usual." Harry told them frowning, getting over the fact that their professors would be all out of wack this year. Hermione had to admit, even she would have to say it was weird seeing the professor that had been teaching them potions since the beginning of their schooling transferred to the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, but then again he would still always be just _Severus_ to her in every other way.

Then Harry suddenly turned back to her with a shrewd look masking his face while asking her, "Did you happen to come by this information another way than simply knowing Slughorn's profession, Hermione?"

Hermione's curls reared back, utterly flabbergasted than anything she had ever been regarding her best friend. "What in the name of the gods are you talking about, Harry? Of course I know him from his work, besides, he was the last potions professor before Professor Snape took over when he became spy for Dumbledore. Where did you think I found out?"

She exchanged looks with Ron as Harry ignored her questions, starting to haltingly speak of his days in muggle London with Sirius who had once again taken to breaking Order rules, or _Dumbledore's_ rules at least in walking out of Grimmauld Place. To apparently gallivant off in plain sight into crowds of muggles, where Hermione had to admit they were very well hidden from wizarding society. Short of using a locator spell that would require some piece of the person, if Hermione had not known Tom and herself had given orders to stay all Death Eater's hands when it came to anything involving Harry Potter she would have been more concerned. They simply had orders to watch his every move and report them back when Hermione herself was not present with the teenage boy.

Hermione looked to the side of Harry's cheek that had begun boasting light stubble sometime between her last look of him and now, and she lamented sadly upon their time as small children. Even if her life had never been particularly slow since introducing herself to Tom, nor the magical world in general as there had always been something new to learn of, she would change nothing as she had been able to keep Harry from taking as much a load as apparently Dumbledore wished for him. But again, her and Severus' non- conversation regarding horcruxes and fallen parents always seemed to be in the back of her mind these days.

_Hopefully the meddling man would not get any ideas in his head…_

…

Harry woke Hermione up it seemed in the middle of the night, shaking her lightly and whispering into her ear as she fought the sleepiness clouding her head. "Hermione, come on, wake up. I don't want to wake up Ginny."

Opening her eyes, she could feel the tell-tale headache she tended to get when waking too early after falling into a deep sleep. Watching as a dark familiar shape moved above her, and hissed it's words down at her prone body, she finally shook the last vestiges of sleep from her head, moving a hand out from beneath the sheets to hold it out to Harry.

He took it in his own once it made contact with his chest, "What are you doing in here, Harry? It's the middle of the night." She moved her feet further beneath Crookshanks' warmth at the foot of her bed, burrowing further into her covers away from the cold.

Harry pulled on her arm slightly, "C'mon, 'Mione. We have to talk, come outside with me."

She sighed deeply before heaving herself out of the bed and following Harry down to the fields to lay in the grass where Severus had dropped her off just earlier in the day. As they lay staring up at the stars, Hermione felt a sudden peace descend on her much like that day with Tom when they had woken after the restoration of his horcrux.

Settled and fully awake, Hermione spoke while tracing constellations written in the stars, "Alright, Harry. What did you have the need to pull me out of bed for? Not that I don't love spending time with you at any time of night or day anyway."

His hand grabbed her's, squeezing it once before speaking so low she had to pause for a second to register his words. Words that she never would have thought would come from his mouth until she had found the right time to tell him of her secret. One of them anyway. "I know about Professor Snape, Hermione."

Crickets were all around them as they lay in the grass, several occasionally jumping on their sleep pants or shirts and intending to make it their new home before they realized the ground their feet were rested upon was moving and breathing. The stars twinkled high above them far into space. Hermione could only seem to focus on these aspects of their surroundings, not even noticing how her hand had seemed to tighten into an almost painful thing as it gripped her best friend's.

"Hermione, are you freaking out?" he asks her, his voice as clear as day within her ears even as her heart seemed to want to beat right out of her chest and crawl right out her ear canal as if it were a parasite overtaking her bodily faculties one by one.

She looked to him, turning her cheek right into the dirt below them that no doubt rubbed dead leaves and even more soil into her previously clean curls. She paused before she spoke, observing Harry's face that simply looked at her with calmness and peace, "When? How did you figure it out?"

Harry suddenly smiled slightly, the corners of his lips turning just upwards enough to cause Hermione to become wary, "Honestly, Hermione, its been in front of all of our faces for so long, but we were too blind to see it. The others probably would have written it off, but knowing you in the way that I do with everything you have told me about you and him, I found out for sure after the Department of Mysteries." At the girl's frowning forehead, he elaborated as he averted him eyes back up to the sky, "When I looked into his pensive, I found a memory of you, and I could feel everything he felt for you in that moment. A kind of _peace_ I never would have thought he could have for anyone, and I knew that he at least loved you."

Hermione continued frowning, not having asked Severus which memories he had placed within the enchanted bowl, nor did he volunteer the information. Despite remembering she explicitly told Harry she did not want to know of which memories he had seen, she also knew he would not bring them up in a time like this if it were not important to his viewpoint of her and Severus' relationship.

_He felt a peace with her… much like she did she suspected…_

Harry continued, still looking up to the twinkling sky, "But after you were injured and we came back to Hogwarts, all you would do is tell him not to leave you. When you were bleeding all over the place, whimpering all the way from once you woke back up from the curse when we were still in the Ministry up until he grabbed you from Remus, you pushed through your pain just to tell him not to leave you. That's when I knew for certain you returned his feelings."

They were both quiet for a while, Harry done with his speech, and Hermione not exactly knowing how to proceed with all the thoughts swirling in her brain. Through all the years, through all the secrets she held, she had been undone slightly from the most painful thing she had ever known. Undone in her most fragile state by her beloved best friend and brother who she could not love anymore than she could at this moment for taking a weight from her shoulders she had not been aware was occupying it's place. Her most trusted confidant outside of Severus himself finally knew of the thing she most wished for him to except. Would Tom have ever been this way as a brother should if he had reversed roles into Harry's place?

_She had no illusions as to his acceptance to her role in the other secret she held… she could not entertain the fragile and loose hope that he would accept her words on why she was now also sister to the man who tore apart his life… happy as he was and she was… he might understand her reasons, but would he accept them as he had this?_

"I won't tell you that I understand completely why you love him, because I don't," he said lowly, breaking the brief silence in which they listened to the crickets surrounding them and the occasional late night bird hoot. "But you do, and I have always trusted you to know what is best for all of us, and until you decide to tell everyone else on your own time I will keep my mouth shut. Merlin knows you have kept plenty of my secrets after all these years."

Hermione, finally having pulled herself together from her previous brain emptiness, smiled a bit sadly at the messy haired boy once he turned his eyes back towards her, "Thank you for your support, Harry. I know that not everyone will understand quite as easily as you do," she pauses hesitatingly before continuing, "Sirius certainly took a bit of convincing once he found out."

Harry's eyes widened, propping himself up on one elbow to look down at her form upon the ground, "He never said anything to me!" His brows narrowed, "Is that why he would walk out every time Professor Snape would come into the room whenever you were there? Last Christmas?"

Hermione giggled all the while as Ron awakened in his room that he had shared with Harry from the Ghoul in the attic began banging about, glancing out of the tall window to see his two friends tickling each other in the grass surrounding his home. A sadness suddenly beginning within the pit of his stomach as he watched Hermione's heart shaped face laugh up to the boy she obviously loved, climbing back into bed and pretended to be asleep once the other boy came back up hours later.


	32. 6th Year Part Four

" _You can't force someone to see the truth, just like you can't force a blind man to see."_

_~Marilyn Manson_

~.O.~

As Hermione and the other school age Weasley children enter into the bustling alley on their way to Fred and George's joke shop that might as well be Diagon Alley's version of Zonkos, the curly haired girl heard the two heads of the family speak to one another.

"I am surprised that there have not been more raids, Arthur." Molly told her husband, taking care to keep her voice low and under cover of all the noise going about them, but it was clear to Hermione's own magically enhanced ears as she eavesdropped. "This time during the First War, He- Who- Must- Not- Be- Named was prominent, everything was in ruins, what is he waiting for?"

"I don't know, Molly." Arthur told his wife, placing his hand on her back to guide her through the jostling crowds they were looking anxiously at for any sign of hidden Death Eater activity, although that in itself would have been an anomaly. They had never hidden their presence for want of being seen and being part of a spectacle. "But be grateful, you remember how Diagon Alley was a nightmare, and we didn't have children to buy school things for then."

Hermione paused as they came before Ollivander's open wand shop, watching as the man bustled around the many boxes stacked up upon one another to find the perfect one for the small child standing with his parents before him. But as the man suddenly jerked to a stop when seeing the small girl standing just outside his door, raising her hand to wiggle her fingers at him, he turned pale and quickly disappeared into the darker part of his shop. The girl shaking her head, remembering how off kilter he had been when her and Severus had visited his shop themselves just weeks ago before leaving Malfoy Manor for the summer. Simple questions on the fabled Elder Wand and it's real life counterpart outside of the children's tale of The Deathly Hallows causing him to turn ashen and stutteringly tell them he wished for them to leave. No doubt the wand's reputation for causing death and destruction whenever it changed hands leaving him with no choice but to deny it's existence outside of the story, her and her love leaving the shop willingly yet with a warning to tell no one of their questions or presence in his shop that day. Thankfully Hermione had been able to convince her brother of his complete ignorance to it's whereabouts, but she knew not if it was the truth.

The trio made off to Madame Malkin's for new robes once Mrs. Weasley once again began chuckling over the fact that it would do no good to have Ron's ankles showing beneath his Hogwarts robes, Hermione giggling distractedly as well at his expression. Her thoughts still on the Hallows, she trailed slightly behind the two boys while they ran to the fact that no one truly knew of what form the three artifacts took if they did indeed embody something able to be held. If they were not simply objects within a story being told of how death is in scary, but can be kind and is possible to greet without fear. The fabled wand, was it truly made of wood from the elder tree with a thestral hair core? Or was it made of common ebony and dragon heartstring? Was the Resurrection Stone made of black stone much like the ring she held on her finger, or was it of the clearest diamond, or blood ruby? Was the Cloak of Invisibility a simple black cloak, or a thing of shimmering blue and pearl like beauty as Harry's was sitting currently in her beaded bag strapped around her chest?

_Tom has such faith in the truth to becoming the Master of Death that he has restored his soul to it's former state… for the most part… we can only hope the blessed objects are not simply of the mind of a creative person seeking fame for a most loved children's story…_

Harry suddenly spread his arms out on either side of him as if preparing widely for a hug from someone in front of him, causing both Hermione and Ron to come to a halt as they ran into him. They both look to each other confusedly before asking the boy who held them back why exactly he was doing so, all the while they stood in the middle of the street while people bumped them from all sides without an apologetic glance backwards.

"Harry, what _are_ you looking at?" Hermione asks, exasperated and on the verge of hissing at the very next person who decides her long robes were their next piece of walking space.

The dark haired boy said nothing, content in his silence and jostled stillness before simply and without warning yanking on their arms as he caught sight once more of a slightly shifty looking Draco and Narcissa Malfoy disappearing into the dark corner leading to Knockturn Alley. As they came to the spot he last saw the two blondes, he violently yanked open Hermione's beaded bag, causing it to dig into the side of her neck hard enough to most likely leave a red mark and slight bruise. Batting at his hands with several stinging slaps, he drew out the Invisibility Cloak he had given her for safekeeping over the summer before he draped it over the three of them. Squeezing together to all fit, Hermione and Ron continued to grumble as to why they were doing so in the first place as the cloth was made to fit a single full grown wizard, and did not contribute the width of a half- giant even if the height of it might have.

"Would you to be quiet, please?" he finally hissed at them as they came to the front of Borgin and Burkes shop window that boasted two familiar heads of platinum blonde hair.

"We can't understand parseltongue, Harry." Ron hissed in his own way back to the boy in the middle of the two of them, causing her a slight surprise.

_No wonder Harry never knows when he is speaking the snake language… or hearing it anyway… it sounds exactly like their normal tongue as opposed to several hisses and spits that could have been attributed to the boy's whispered impatience or anger…_

Hermione cursed in her head and casting a glare to Harry, not having known this was the day the two Malfoys were to come into the shop to carry out her brother's orders. "So much for being friendly anymore, then." She says under her breath, causing Harry to send her a glare of his own.

He avidly watched as the owner of the small antique shop begans painting a disgruntled mask onto his face as his arms wove around in the air while apparently arguing with Draco as Narcissa occasionally input a word or two before being dismissed by the proprietor, "Damn, I wish I could hear what they are saying."

Hermione knew exactly what they were saying, their rising voices allowing her to clearly hear each damning and irritated word the Borgin said to Draco and his mother. Ron then speaking up, his earlier irritation at being manhandled without explanation forgotten in his curiosity, "We should have gone to Fred and George's earlier, we could have gotten one of those extendable ears they had to spy on the Order meetings at Grimmauld."

Sighing heavily at the events unfolding around her, she had to be even a little grateful to Harry for following Draco for no reason at all with his renewed distrustfulness of him as she grabbed her side of the cloak.

_At least she was here to clean up this mess today rather than having even more to deal with once Hogwarts began… Tom would have used very different methods than she was about to at the moment…_

Shaking the two boys off of her once she ducked out from beneath their cover after checking for people watching their small invisible spot, she ignored their furiously whispered questions before carefully shaping her mouth to say in careful human language, " _Stay here!_ "

Opening the wooden door to the jingling chime of the bell above her head, the three inhabitants of the shop paused their argument before continuing once they simply saw the small girl immediately disappear behind an ornate cabinet she ran her fingers over before stopping before the wall of leather bound books in a corner of the store. Narcissa turning away from where she had sent the girl a brief pleading look, attempting to to ask once more that the disagreeable man behave somewhat civilly so that they could come to an agreement. Reverently tracing the gold written words upon several of the spines, Hermione browsed the darker section of the shelves while keeping a keen ear on the trio for several more minutes and Draco's attempts to resolve his own issues before pulling one large tome off from the section on soul magics.

Borgin, seeing his young customer appear once more around the various objects he turned to her, "May I help you with something, dear?"

Hermione smiled patiently before stepping up beside Draco, sweetly saying and holding out her item with both hands, "I would like to purchase this tome." The man nods as he gently accepted the old and rare book before turning back to the mother and son standing beside her to tell them they must leave as he simply can not allow what he has been asked to do, but Hermione cut the end to their conversation at the heels. "Mr. Malfoy will be paying for it."

The man and boy beside her both turn to her surprised, Draco still with a slightly agitated look about his fact as Borgin parted his mouth before welding it firmly shut and nodding curtly, continuing behind his counter.

_It really is a weird thing to call anyone other than Lucius Mr. Malfoy… but to any others within the wizarding community Draco would claim the title in Lucius' absence… and be treated as such… not that Borgin seemed to be much bothered by Pureblood attitudes and expectations…_

The shop remained silent for the purchase, and Hermione was immensely thankful for the placement of the check out counter as it sat out of way from the window's view. As well as the two curiously nosy boys and prying eyes should she be forced to resort to drastic measures. Hovering her fingers over the opal necklace just beside the register, clearly marked in loopy cursive beneath it _Cursed: Touch at your own peril. To be cursed is to pay your dues._ Pulling away from the dark energy surrounding it, she turned back to Borgin as he slid the cloth wrapped book towards the trio before him, cleary glancing pointedly at the door in a silent request for them to be on their way.

Hermione ignores his wishes, cocking her head just so, "So Mr. Borgin, there is nothing we can say at all that will change your mind as to leaving the Vanishing Cabinet within your store for safe keeping?" Borgin froze suddenly from where he had been preparing to scamper off back into his warded back office, looking between the cursed necklace Hermione now examined with her bare fingers and the two Malfoy's beside her.

He says nothing for a moment, expecting any moment for Hermione to fall to the floor in agony due to the object she allowed her thin fingers to run over, "I do not discuss private business with others girl," he said shakily, never having seen anyone pick up an object within his store with such nonchalance as this young girl before him and live to tell others.

_Save one… many years ago… one who, now that it runs across his mind… also had the same cheekbones as the girl before him… his most celebrated assistant who vanished just a year after he came to him with such promise…_

Neating back the necklace onto it's stand, Hermione flexed her magic in the air, allowing the man to finally come to terms with the fact he faced a clearly powerful witch who would not allow simple words to speak for her as the young Malfoy heir had. The beautiful piece of jewelry jingled slightly before them, and his Adam's apple jumped in fear while Hermione tapped her left forearm with her wand and quickly hissed out a few words. Rolling her sleeve to just above her arm, she exposed the white skull and snake that seemed to almost blend into her pale skin.

"Do you recognize this mark, sir?" She asked him as he took a step backwards.

_The mark that matches the man… that cursed boy that walked into his shop with all the confidence and charm of this girl…_

He nods silently, so Hermione smiles once again before righting her fitted sleeve once more, "Good. Now that is out of the way, the Malfoys have already purchased this Cabinet, correct?" She motioned to the elaborate object beside the entrance to the shop and continued without waiting for him to answer, "We simply ask you to hold it here within your shop as it's twin is mended elsewhere, and my brother as well as an acquaintance will occasionally come in to check on the linking process." She pauses to make for certain that he was following her words, "Your time will be compensated for of course, as there can not be anyone within the shop while it is being tested. We are also paying for discretion as well as storage, as I am sure you know of the raids being made against Malfoy Manor. The Ministry may construe the cabinet as a, _dark artifact_ shall we say? And we wouldn't want them digging in to where it was bought would we?"

Borgin nodded jerkily, hesitatingly asking, "And who should I expect within my shop, My Lady?"

Hermione grabbed up her book and hugged it to her chest, "My brother's name is Marvolo, he will tell you of the others that will come into the shop."

…

Harry and Ron were both balls of anxiety once she exited the shop with Draco and Narcissa just behind her, leaving Draco with a kiss on the cheek and Narcissa with a short curtsy that was returned. Walking back down the almost empty streets of Knockturn Alley to the entrance of the main street that would begin a hasty visit to Madame Malkins and the joke shop, she was pulled into a corner by the suddenly appearing boys.

"What took you so long?"

"Did you hear what they were saying?"

"What was that kiss on Maloy's _cheek_ about, 'Mione?"

"You actually bought something in there? How do you know it is not cursed?"

The dark and red headed boys looked to her expectantly, but she just rolled her eyes before continuing unconcealed through the darker streets with the boys right behind her beneath the cloak, shiftily looking at those few people who passed by them. Hermione was unconcerned even as their anxiety permeated the air around them in any case, nodding to the few people who simply bowed slightly or curtsied to her as they recognized their Lady and sought to acknowledge her. Yet, each of them knew better than to stop her outside the halls of Malfoy Manor due to her extremely precarious situation as a figurehead for both the Light and Dark.

Telling Harry a lie would ease his mind she tells herself, even knowing the answer would simply not be enough, "They were arguing about a shipment Draco had ordered for his mother's birthday, and wanted his money back as it had been delivered damaged. Nothing sinister happening as far as I could tell, and not everything in that store is cursed." She shook her book at his face as an exhibit A.

As they finally made their way to the main street of Diagon Alley that had drastically more light than Knockturn, Harry and Ron once again were made visible and the Cloak was stuffed into Hermione's beaded bag. Making their way to Madame Malkins to quickly order their new robes, Harry made such a sudden leap of thought that she had no idea of where it came from.

"He's joined the Death Eaters!" Harry whispered to them out of the blue as Ron stood on the platform while Madame Malkin disappeared into her back storage room. Although Hermione threw him a silencing glare each time he opened his mouth to begin another tirade, it seemed to have no effect on him after all these years of receiving them. Most of the time anyway, when she was truly angry at him it was altogether a different kind of story.

"By the Gods, Harry." Hermione groaned as she stepped up for her turn on the platform after Ron went to take his own place beside Harry. "There is absolutely no evidence to that fact, and you need to stop talking such nonsense."

Harry finally saw how irritated his friend was with him while holding her bag in his lap, fingering the tassels along the long strap as he turned to his other friend and last resort to convincing _someone_ that Draco Malfoy was now a Death Eater. A fact he just _knew._

"Do you believe me?" He whispered to him.

The red head looked hesitatingly to the back of Hermione's curly bouncing head, saying lowly so as to not be overheard, "Yes."

~.O.~

Harry was left alone to walk to his own compartment as Hermione made her way to the prefect's meeting in the middle of the train, feeling very irritated with her best friend as she just knew he was thinking of Draco after their sojourn at Borgin and Burkes. The fact that he went so far as to pull Arthur aside after their errands to speak of his concerns simply furthered her irritation. Knowing that it was an argument she simply could not win at the moment, she stalked off, sitting in almost silence between Draco and Ron unless asked a question until the end of the meeting where she grabbed Draco's hand to the surprise of the other prefects in the carriage as soon they were done. Ron's especially if the twisted look on his face told her of anything, but she was on a mission and would not be deterred.

He followed behind her and the Slytherin as she told Draco to come with her as if she was giving him a choice while he raised his eyebrow at her, "What are you doing bringing a Slytherin into the Gryffindor compartments, Hermione?" Ron asked from behind them, but she ignored him as she did the other Gryffindors around her watching with wide eyes as she drug the most known blonde of Slytherin house behind her by the hand.

Stepping right inside their normal compartment that had only one blonde girl who could very well be twin to Draco such as their complexions and hair matched each other, Hermione greeted her before sitting beside her. Ron taking a seat opposite her, Draco, and Luna all squeezed into one the bench while Hermione talked to the other girl as she calmed herself.

After asking how Luna's summer was, she asked, "Where is Harry?"

"Him and Neville both were invited to join the new professor in his compartment for lunch," the other girl told Hermione who all the while watched as Ron glared at her and the boy leaning onto her shoulder. She smiled and nodded to Luna in thanks while Draco began whispering in her ear.

"Why exactly have your brought me with you into enemy territory to be subjected to Weasel- Bee's absolutely rude looks that speak of him wanting to murder me?" He hid his lips into her curls as he spoke.

Her irritation bleeding away as she calmed right down at the distraction, she craned her own neck up to speak into his ear as Luna opened up a Quibbler beside her to begin reading. "Harry thinks you are a Death Eater." He jerks back to her in flinching surprise, to which she raised an eyebrow to before jerking him back down to her level by his black shirted collar. "They were nosing around Knockturn Alley the day we needed to iron out the agreement with Borgin, the reason why I was there at all. So now, I am going to show both the boys your bare arm to prove you don't have a Dark Mark."

He continued on imitating Severus with his pale eyebrow raised high, "Is that why you insisted I buy that 100 galleon book?"

Ron, suddenly fed up with their whispering and being kept out of a conversation he was clearly dying to hear, leaned towards them looking completely alarmed and flabbergasted. "Why in Merlin's name would you pay 100 galleons for a bloody book?!"

Both turning towards the youngest Weasley boy, Hermione icily replied, "It was a very rare book, Ronald."

Harry and Neville finally broke the tension between the three teens while Luna simply read on obliviously beside Hermione, occasionally making a comment on something her father had written or she had contributed to. Neville continued on inside the compartment to sit beside Ron after saying hello to Hermione and Draco while Harry shifted to an abrupt halt and held tightly to the sides of the doorway with both hands.

Hermione stood while pulling on Draco's arm to signal him to stand, which he did with a roll of the eyes and allowed her to push up his left forearm sleeve. Baring the unmarked limb to the surprise of Harry as his eyes widened behind his glasses, she asks her friend, "Does this look like the arm of a Death Eater, Harry Potter?"

The boy slid his eyes wildly to the others behind Hermione, Neville and Ron speaking lowly and avoiding Hermione's ire for the moment by not meeting their friend's bespeckled and pleading eyes. Draco sighed heavily before righting himself, "Can I leave now, Hermione? I have more important things to do than hang around with a bunch of Gryffindors."

Luna chimes in behind her Quibbler, "I'm a Ravenclaw." Smiling brightly at Draco's affirming nod.

"You may," Hermione tells him sweetly before flouncing back into her seat in the now silent compartment as Harry sat slowly beside her.

After a moment he spoke up once more, "I am sorry, Hermione. I know I was bothering you."

_But there is still something up with Malfoy…_

It was just a matter of stilted minutes before yet another thing interrupted the suffocating silence that had just begun fading back to normalcy, "Is _he_ who you are sleeping with, 'Mione?!" Ron asked loudly, referencing Fred and George's damnable purity marble that had outed many Hogwarts student's sexual status to their peers.

Hermione gave him a disgusted look over her new tome she had pulled from the bag strapped across her chest, but it was Luna who spoke for her, airly saying, "He is quite handsome, Hermione. I wouldn't fault you for it, except for his attitude sometimes. But I rather think that darker haired guys are more to her liking, Ron."

The pale boy's face turned red as a sunburn all the way up to his forehead, eyes flicking towards Harry who had buried his face behind a Quibbler he had taken from the stack balancing on Luna's lap. Never occurring to him nor Hermione that his other friend now thought he was sleeping with the girl he was beginning to develop jealous tendencies towards.

~.O.~

Harry watched Hermione and their new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor carefully, observing their interaction for anything he may have previously missed to indicate they had a deeper relationship than that of student and professor. He saw nothing out of the ordinary to signal romantic feelings between the two of them, even as he knew the truth.

As they must have their luggage checked by each Head of House not their own so as to be impartial, something Dumbledore apparently thought necessary for some reason or another, Hermione gave her single beaded bag to the professor to check for dark objects. Or Weasley products as it seemed Filch had given the Headmaster much grief having to clean up after them when the twins had still been students with their developing products being given out to first years. The dark man's arm disappearing into the bag up to his elbow, Harry suddenly wished to grab it up out of his hands knowing his invisibility cloak was being kept deep within it's confines, but the man simply withdrew his hand with the shrunken tome Hermione had been gifted from Borgin and Burkes. Harry watched the side of Hermione's face as she grinned sheepishly for a reason unknown to him, the book seemingly one of the ordinary variety one would find within the Restricted Section of the Hogwarts library.

_If he only knew the kinds of blood magic to bind souls together written within it's pages… Hermione had been overly grateful Severus had been assigned to search the Gryffindor's bags… it would have taken much effort to convince one of the other Heads of House the book was really harmless… despite the clear aura of mischief and darkness caressing your hands when it was held…_

"Draco had to buy it for me," she told the man so quietly as to not be overheard by those around her, except for Harry who was actively listening for an indication as to exactly why a book needed such a flimsy excuse to move past check- in.

Severus simply shook his head slightly with no questions, "You may proceed to the Great Hall, Miss. Granger."

She smiled brightly up to him, stepping to the side to wait for Harry and Ron to be scanned by Severus' wand for any contraband on their person despite deigning to run his wand over the previous Gryffindor prefect, "Thank you, Professor Snape."

As they continued into the candle lit Great Hall, Harry looked down to the small girl who had taken hold of his arm. As he once again looked away from Malfoy towards her, he was intent on allowing her to believe he had let his renewed vendetta against the Pureblood fly away on the wind. Even as he had to admit the other boy was not as horribly tempered as he once was after having banded together within Dumbledore's Army, he still could not help but be wary of his allegiances. His obvious loyalty to Hermione notwithstanding, it no doubt coming about through her new love interest, loyalty to your blood family would always challenge that trait towards even the friends you would burn the world for. A trait towards his family and father who had clearly been one of the Death Eaters attempting to obtain the prophecy, something to which he could not seem to understand how his best friend could forgive and forget so easily. Running his eyes over her curly hair and subtly changed features, that once again a sense of unattainable deja vu rose to the surface of his mind as he also began feeling a curiosity as to what exactly the professor knew of them through Hermione's words and actions.

As the Headmaster began his yearly speech as the first years were sorted into their houses, Harry asked Hermione lowly while the man's booming voice echoed through the large room, "How long did you know of the Defense and Potions change?"

She looked to him while dropping the death glare she had been giving Ron who had made a comment that maybe the defense position's jinx would cause another falling out of the professor like all their previous years, she cocked her head to the side, she says, "Since the end of term, while I was in the Infirmary Professor Dumbledore told Severus if he was able to convince Slughorn to return to his old post he would be able to gain the position."

Harry shook off the weirdness that was hearing a professor's first name come out of his friend's mouth, once again wondering how such a thing as the girl and that man who seemed to hold a severe dislike of his person came about. "Do you know why they changed their positions _now_? Why not just stay how it was?"

Hermione chuckled slightly, "I am inclined to think that there have been less to no offers for the Defense position than previous years seeing as each professor since we began school succumbed to the _jinx._ " She once again threw a glare towards Ron's bent head as he shoveled food into his mouth, talking picking up around them now that Dumbledore bid them to finish their dinner before retiring for the night. "Umbridge's little incident certainly didn't help matters as she has been speaking out to anyone who will listen in St. Mungos that a _student_ threw her to the centaurs and the forbidden forest." She took on a shocked mask as Harry stifled a small laugh, "As if the all powerful former Headmistress with the might of the Ministry behind her could not handle them herself, but unfortunately, if has impacted our choices of professors."

Harry, as a mimickry of his earlier deja vu, got a sense of something within Hermione, as if he were not seeing the full person that was his best friend and simply the good parts of her, even while he had to admit there was _something_ within her over the years that had been growing. With her choice of actions on dealing with Umbridge and Marietta Edgecomb, it was something beginning to peek out once again just as it has when she had threatened Ron years ago for hurting Crookshanks. He shook his head, letting his thoughts once again fall away from him so that he would not have to acknowledge the niggling thought that maybe she was becoming such a person due to the influence of the man she claims to love. He was a dark spy after all. But most of all, he did not want to acknowledge the other side of the coin, that she was simply this way all along and was just not caring who saw the true _her_ anymore.

_But he has seen the true her all along… never once had he felt horrified at the things she has done… even as their friends… Ron, Ginny, Neville… found out that their most sweet and loving friend had scarred more than one person for life… not once had he felt anything close to their disgust at the girl who loved him unconditionally… who he… loved…_

Hermione continued speaking as she filled her plate with food once Ron's grabby hands finished picking clean the trays and piling his own plate high, "It is why I was banished to the Burrow so early." At Harry's questioning look at the word _banished_ she smirked, "He insisted on making his own lesson plans for Defense instead of taking the Ministry's or Dumbledore's, so he made me leave because I kept distracting him from it."

His face adopted a slightly green tinge to it, turning abruptly away from her with all attempts at further questions falling away as a sudden image of Hermione wrapped around their dark professor caused him to shudder so violently that his food fell from his spoon. Seeing this, the curly haired girl began giggling loud enough to cause those around her to throw indulgent smiles her way as they didn't often hear her in such a carefree way that Harry often did.

"Best not to ask anymore questions of us, Harry. Given how you look now, I think there is only so much you could stomach if you want details."

A pouncing on his feet dispelled the green tint to give way to red as he yelped loud enough for those same people who had looked to Hermione now glanced at him. Looking beneath the table, he came face to face with a large orange monster who placed his paws on his knees to meow cutely up to him while bumping his hand with his head to demand pets and chin scratches, as if he had not made his Mistress' friend heart jump into his throat. Hermione's laughs turned into hiccups at this point, so Harry pushed her arm as his own lips turned up at the corners in happiness that he could make at least one person in the world as happy as he apparently made her.

Ron looked up to him with a full mouth, asking, "Why exactly has 'Mione gone mad, 'Arry?"


	33. 6th Year Part Five

" _Her perfume reminded me of freshly picked flowers and sticky candyfloss, mixed with a gentle hint of debauchery."_

_~ Michael Faudet_

~.O.~

Harry simply stared at the thinly veiled look of adoration written upon Hermione's face as their new Defense Professor took up the front platform of his new classroom, the post he had so wanted and wished for all the years they had known him. Once again, he wondered how he could have been so blind to how his absolute best friend in the world felt for the man, but then again he remembered several instances of writing it off as Hermione being Hermione. Of looking up to their professors and respecting them so fully that, yes it was weird in some instances that she saw their Potions Professor in that way as he treated them just as any other Gryffindor, but it had never once crossed his mind to think anything untoward. Granted, he had always been less than temperamental with the curly haired girl during their schooling years as well as actually speaking to her outside of those months within Grimmauld Place, always without the note of derision in his voice he normally had for his other students, barring Slytherins. The professor never finding anything of fault within her work or personality that she herself wouldn't have held herself accountable.

Severus began his yearly speech before every class, just as he had in potions to remind them they would have no use for foolish wand waving, and his love listened to every detail knowing just how much she had loved how highly he held each subject he specialized within. She seemed not to notice the pair of green eyes watching her all the while.

"The Dark Arts are a branch of magic which is many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal." His deep drawling voice began, eyes skimming over each of his new students to ensure they paid even a modicum of attention to his words, "A subject in which, if you choose to dabble within it, you may just lose yourself to the seductiveness in which the power you are controlling turns back onto your mind and you lose yourself into insanity." He paused just long enough on the girl in the very front of him, smiling slightly as she watched him pause in eye and voice for a split second before continuing to the boy beside her and on, "Fighting them is like fighting a many headed hydra, which, as each head is severed, is just as powerful as the dark where another grows in it's place even fiercer and cleverer than before. You are fighting that of which is unfixed, mutating, indestructible. Something that has the ability to control you as much as you have control over your own movements if you slip even a small bit when performing it.."

The green eyed boy noted the pause once he turned his own attention to their professor, glancing to Hermione while thinking just how prettily her cheeks flushed when the older man looked in her direction, the almost imperceptible softening of her mouth. What attracted her to him, he wondered. Seeing as how he was obviously a very dark man, even without the knowledge that he had once joined the Death Eaters of his own free will despite the fact he was now a spy as a result of reasons unknown to Harry, but most likely known to the girl. This speech in which he spoke of the Dark Arts with the same caress as he would give to those he would love, had he ever spoken to Hermione with such a tone veiling his voice? He must if his normally logical and rational friend was seduced by him, but then again, maybe she was the one to seduce the temperamental man. Harry could clearly see how that could be if even he sometimes falls into his love for her that sometimes surprised him with thoughts as such as the ones he now found swirling in his mind.

He looked between them with the knowledge that the man whose face never broke character for anything other than the end of last year while watching Hermione sleep in all her wounded glory, was in love with Hermione just as much as she seemed to be in love with him. He had after all felt the love the dark man felt for her, and understood it completely. He wondered though what exactly she had told Sirius who had somehow known of their relationship before his godson, or what he had thought when finding out that the man he had always seemed to loathe was involved within a relationship with the girl he had always called kitten. He must have respected Hermione just as Harry did to accept her own actions regarding her own life, and not putting it upon himself to interfere like many others would for the good of that person. As if they could ever interfere into something seemingly as deep as the love the two had for each other, if the looks in plain daylight were to speak of anything they could ever say.

…

His previous thoughts on his friend's life dissipated once Potions with their other new professor began, Harry watching in amusement as Slughorn noticeably took an interest in Hermione as he had once thought on the Hogwarts Express. With the older man's impressive affinity in the _collection_ of intellectual students who had a knack of sending him copious amounts of precious gifts, he had no doubt just days ago that he would be even more inclined to the girl after simply hearing Harry's glowing words of her. Words of praise that had made her squeeze him tightly once he told her of his recommendation because, no matter how old she became or liked to deny, she has always had an affinity herself to seeking out those who would praise her good work.

_Such as a professor for a boyfriend…_

She answered each question on the potions sitting before the class, each emitting a veritable amount of steamy mist upon their boilers that gave their professor a sort of greedy glint in his eye simply speaking of his want to have her for his little group. The one in which she called Amortentia, the love potion that was not true love, was the one he had thought smelled much like treacle tart, fresh cut wood, and a light musk that had surprisingly reminded him of how Hermione had begun smelling sometime in the last year or so. He had flushed as Slughorn elaborated on the potion's properties, the infatuation it caused with the person wearing it as it spoke to your innermost loved smells which was an all powerful thing. A thing in which could take you back to your childhood of freshly made pie and the person who had made it for a special occasion, for example. Creating a false sense of obsessiveness that mimicked love, the Professor was very nosy in asking Hermione what it smelled of to her, to which she replied with new parchment which now always reminded her of the diary in which she first met her brother through, leather, black tea, and bergamot. Pinning down exactly the citrus like smell Harry always smelled in her curls each time he hugged her, without fail burying his nose in them to get even more of it to which she always knew he loved doing. The leather she had spoken of being the Quidditch gloves he wore that also smelled much like newly bound books, and the leather flying jacket Harry wore on rainy or especially cold days during practice or matches. The black tea smell was all Severus, and the bergamont an oil Draco had recommended Severus to begin putting in the smoothing potion he made for her hair. How the blonde knew which smell would best suit her and her curls she would never know. All four of her most important men in her life represented by one potion was very much nice, with a side of scary.

As they began brewing Draught of the Living Death for a chance at the Felix Felicis luck potion held in a small vial beside the other cauldrons, Harry was having much trouble deciphering the blacked out instructions and paragraphs from the book the professor had given him. So as this was, he simply began following the instructions and paragraphs written in the margins and hoped the cauldron wouldn't explode. Once their time was up and it came to Slughorn to grade the _competition_ of who could take the perfect Draught, he was much surprised to find that the potion was the exact shade the book said it should be as well as matching Hermione's. Covertly glancing over at the girl whose curly bun had simply began resembling a ball of frizz rather than the smooth curls she had been able to tame it into, each of their potions matched with the small exception that her's was an unnoticeable shade darker than his own if he were simply glancing between the two rather than scrutinizing them in the way he purposely was.

Looking through the scribble as Slughorn slowly made his rounds about the room, intermittently telling each student where they had gone wrong, he thought maybe he would simply keep the book to look over later. Flipping through the pages of just familiar black spidery ink marking most of the printed words, he absently thought on how the book resembled one of Hermione's own when she found a better way of doing things and scribbled quickly in her textbook so as to not forget later on. As if she ever forgot a spell or charm she had performed, or a potion she had memorized because one never knew when they would need to make one and are denied access to a list of ingredients and instructions.

"Bloody hell, Harry." Came Ron's voice from beside him, Harry looking up to see the red head looking between his own cauldron that had thick bubbling sludge compared to Harry's own thin misting brew. "How were you able to do _that_?"

Hermione who had been so focused in her own element of checking her own Draught, looked into his cauldron with a frown of her own, "How _were_ you able to do that, Harry? You've never made this potion before. No one has below 6th year."

"Then how do you seem to always make yours so perfect?" Ron mumbled under his breath to which Hermione glared and Harry raised a brow with a shake of his head, knowing exactly how. No doubt she helped her _boyfriend_ with his brews, or more like pestered him to allow her to brew her own under his supervision to get that much more knowledge within that little head of her's as soon as possible.

Harry handed over his book, a look of surprised comprehension falling over the girl's face while Harry looked on questioningly as she flipped the pages over with a slight smile when she came to the cover, to which was inked in the upside down words Harry could see: _Property of the Half- Blood Prince._ Her smile was very familiar, so familiar that he had seen it in the last few hours of classes directed towards or hidden from their Defense professor between working on non- verbal spells. Just opening his mouth to question her, Slughorn waddled up to them to look between their two cauldrons they had to offer up with a look of astonishment upon his face.

"Well done you two!" He raved once more, allowing Hermione to stash their now shared prize of liquid luck within her beaded bag seemingly glued to the inside of her school satchel as well as her side, not deeming her dorm safe enough from prying eyes nor hands while in classes. The professor once again placed a green leaf within each of their brews and watched as it turned from red to yellow and finally brown before crumpling and disappearing all together. "Perfect lilac shades, only one other student of mine has been able to achieve it on the first try in all my years. It seems he has taught his students well all these years," he said while glancing around the room sheepishly for a moment, Draco all the while glaring at the professor from his place behind Ron who mimicked his expression. "And you too seem to have pure talent. Just like your mother, Harry. As I thought."

Hermione met Harry's eyes that complemented their potions just so as he jolted at both the mention of their previous Potions Master as well as his mother, "Professor Snape was a very harsh professor, indeed Professor Slughorn." Hermione said quietly as well as privately to the man who leaned towards her, "But he did teach us much when it came to technique and execution, though he had not taught us this particular potion just yet. As you know, it is only reserved for NEWT level potions."

As they made their way to lunch, Hermione cautioned Harry to be careful with those instructions within his new potions book that did not pertain to specific potions, "Listen to me, Harry." She told him as he simply nodded to her words, "Do not try those other spells in that book, Severus had been an ametur spell maker with little to no schooling in that subject, and I would hazard that many of those spells will either backfire on yourself or cause damage to whoever you are trying them on that the book does not reference. I am sure he never meant to leave it laying around, but he did, and I know you." She paused, glancing down to the arm that held the textbook tightly to his side, "Must I lend you mine so you will not be tempted? I know most of the potions we are to learn anyway, I would not need to look at it as much as you will be."

Harry sighed heavily, but knew she simply meant well with all her pestering. "I will not try any of them, Hermione. I will return it to Slughorn once I am able to receive my own from Flourish and Blotts." He wraps an arm around her shoulders to once again silently reassure her he won't do anything stupid, guiding her to their spot at the Gryffindor table. Not not once having felt the dark eyes of his Defense professor who had just finished speaking with a glowing Slughorn.

…

"You shouldn't leave your belongings lying about, Severus." Hermione told her love as she spread herself out on his couch with her Ancient Runes textbook resting on her thighs bent towards her torso.

He continued grading while he answered her, "What exactly have I lost track of, my girl?"

"Harry has found the Half- Blood Prince's old potions textbook," his head shot up to stare into her glinting eyes, narrowing his own at her as he had never before thought to even mention that damnable 6th Year moniker he had made himself. The name quickly fell away from him in the next year as he began to become involved within the Death Eater circle, per Lucius who he had been friends with even though the older man was several years his senior as well was the blonde's acquaintances. "Slughorn, as I am sure you are aware, gifted the both of us a shared vial of Felix Felicis for _our_ perfect Draught of the Living Death. Mine due to your first hand instruction, and Harry's due to your misplaced textbook."

He raised an eyebrow, "I simply thought it was a fluke of Slughorn's eyes that gave Harry Potter an Outstanding on your first lesson of the year. Granted, he does have looser standards than I, shown by his even _accepting_ Potter and Weasley as students."

Hermione shook her head at his words while mumbling, "I have half a mind to just take the book from him and give him my own as I suggested until he buys his a new one, to remove his obvious temptations into trying spells he is specifically told not to try. He did promise, but my book is also written in and I don't particularly feel like enabling him to cheat either way."

He snorted, allowing his eyes to return to skimming an absolutely horrible essay on Essence of Mandrake and it's properties, "You must do it quickly then so as to keep him from eviscerating another student."

The next day of double potions arrived at the end of the week, with Hermione ready to take the book from Harry as well as rid herself of the worry she felt at him being tempted by the damnable object and the words written in it's pages. But instead, her worry was abbated once she saw the new clean book courtesy of a fast owl from Flourish and Blotts sitting next to his hand. Should she have thought to look in the school bag rather than trusting Harry's judgement even she herself had admitted was lacking at times, she would have found the innocuous book just in the middle of his layers of essay parchment instead of safely back into Slughorn's cupboard.

~.O.~

The beautifully ornate dark wooden Vanishing Cabinet with all it's broken and fractured dormant energy was exactly the twin to the one in which currently sat in Flourish and Blotts, although that one did have a certain aspect of crackling health this one did not. The two sister's connection had been severed years ago due to inactivity, resorting them to simple wardrobe props that would sometimes vanish their contents into the ether at the oddest of times, and as one was hidden within the Room of Hidden and Missing Things, it's magic was sent into a sleep. As Draco placed the first of many mending spells that would hopefully spark that first bit of magic the Cabinet desperately needed to reunite with it's sibling, Hermione searched the Room for the diadem Tom had assured her would be placed not too far from their project. With the Room being such a large place with piles of books, brooms, clothes, and other miscellaneous items littering about the floor, it had taken them a while to find the Cabinet even with her brother's outdated directions. Being as it was, many things had been added to the room in the years after he had visited for the last time. But that did not hinder her in the least in finding the Ravenclaw house heirloom sitting right upon the head of a greek statue, just where Tom had placed it all those years ago amounting to over half a muggle's own lifespan.

Running her fingers over the dark blue and clear stones of the beautiful diadem, a whispering began building within her head, calling out to the shared blood coursing through her veins. Draco, who had finally finished with his first day of mending the inanimate object, found Hermione quietly stroking the tiara still sitting high above her head on the noble looking statue and hissing eerily in lazy parseltongue. Judging by the glazed look in her eyes, she did not know of her actions as she talked without blinking once to the object she had found.

"Hermione, what are you hissing for?" Draco asked while gently placing a hand on her shoulder so as to not startle her out of her stupor, but quickly found it would have simply been just as easy or even easier to talk her through her trance. If she could even hear him. The shorter girl quickly struck up to the head of the statue as tall as Draco and in the blink of an eye was several feet away from him hissing and spitting with the tarnished object pressed to her breasts protectively, as if to hide it from those who would seek to take it from her. " _Hermione!_ " Draco practically yelled at her as, suddenly, a medium sized snake slithered out from beneath one of the large piles of clothes and began flicking it's tongue out to Draco while crowding him against a stack of books he then proceeded to knock down.

The girl blinked rapidly a few times before looking down to the boy's feet in confusion as the snake grew ever closer, " _Stand down,_ " she hissed at it while it turned towards her in question. " _Thank you for your help, dear._ " Sheepishly turning towards the paler than usual boy, she padded up to him silently before patting him on the cheek lightly. "I am sorry, Draco. My mind must have wondered." All the while she still had the diadem clutched tightly to her chest, just in case.

He nodded hesitatingly towards the object, "You might want to put that somewhere until you can return it to the Dark Lord."

Her curls twitched for a moment before she regained her smile as if anything out of the ordinary occuring within the last few minutes had simply been a very vivid daydream. Or that was how surreal the situation seemed to Draco as she turned from him while saying, "Of course." His Hermione never would have set a snake on him for the life of her.

Hermione placed the precious heirloom within a velvet lined jewelry box befitting it, the object made all that more precious with the piece of soul it held as Hermione warded it with a quick yet complex spell. Knowing that not many people found this part of the room as many were in a hurry to hide something and then scamper back off, the box would be safe from the few students who would think to look for anything in the mess the room made.

As she walked over to a large pile of books, she noted Draco still giving her a cautious look out of the side of his eye but disregarded it as she knew her actions must have been very startling to him. Had anyone other than her held that talkative diadem within their hands, they surely would have been very startled at what they would hear themselves as they most likely would have been driven slightly insane. Words of egging on the innermost anger and fear, to all those but his blood in any case.

_It has been so long since I have talked to another being… a parselmouth… of our blood… you will rid us of this cage we have been trapped inside of, girl of my blood?_

_I will rid you of your cage brother… you will be reunited with the others of your soul once more… made whole…_

_Sister… I have longed for a sister of the soul for many years… knowing it was to never be…_

_I will protect you brother…_

Amitantly, the darkest piece of the soul her brother had made being held in her hands did cause a bit of jumpiness and overreacting or her own person, obviously, hence calling any snakes forward that might defend her and the precious bit of soul she had held close. The last piece he had made held the smallest yet most corrupting magic even against it's own blood and loyalties, but what was done was done.

Although many of the books within the pile she examined seemed to be that of missing textbooks dating back to even Tom's years in school if the outdated recipes and directions were anything to show, there were a few that looked interesting. Waving the Malfoy Heir over to her in order to go through the large pile more efficiently, she smiled brightly at him to once again reassure him she had no ill intent this time around.

…

As Hermione and Draco had sequestered themselves within the Room of Hidden and Missing things despite Ron looking all about the castle for the girl in question, searching for an audience to his Quidditch practice with Seamus and Dean, Harry was immersed within the memories of a former Ministry employee who encountered the last of the Gaunt family many decades ago. A man named Ogden setting into events of which may have never occurred should horribly mistreated Merope Gaunt had continued to be under thumb of her ugly mannered brother and father, Harry tells his friends the first of many tidbits of life Dumbledore had sought to share with him for some unknown purpose. The woman finally being free of her family's shackles had used a love potion on Tom's father, a wealthy muggle she had run away with the first chance she got once she gained enough courage after watching the Ministry drag her last living relatives away to Azkaban.

_What absolute rubbish… the Dark Lord becoming what he had for want of never even having the capabilities to feel such emotions as love, being conceived by a man under the influence of such a potion… if only Dumbledore could see how gently her brother grazed her cheek with his lips… held on to her in his moment of pain as his soul mended together once more… she was inclined to believe that it was simply a matter of Tom's neglect and ambitions getting in the way of allowing himself to feel for others as he does now… finally acknowledging the fact that love will get him what he has truly desired all this time..._

Having an almost insatiable curiosity to see her brother's mother as she was before resorting to drugging muggles, she insisted on seeing the memory for herself thinking maybe if Tom had any inclination to ask of the woman who birthed him she could answer at least a limited amount of questions. Dragging Harry to Severus' office that opened readily to her despite the wards tingling threateningly over the boy's skin, he became a bit jittery at being within the man's rooms after the last time he had been kicked out in the aftermath of the Occlumency fiasco. Only becoming especially so once Hermione levitated the man's declicate bowl of a pensive into the open from where it had been hidden, Harry too distracted by searching around them to make positive the owner was not hiding in any dark corners of the room to see where it had lain previously.

His eyes widened behind his glasses before taking an involuntary step back from the girl and the white bowl that swirled with previously hidden and extracted memories, he said to her, "Hermione, I don't know about this."

The curly haired curl laughed at him with a twinkle within her eye, knowing exactly his cause for false alarm, "It's alright, Harry. You won't have to stick your nose into anything today, only I will be doing that. Just think of the memory you saw through Odgen's eyes and I will take care of the rest."

The boy stood perfectly still as he looked at the single beauty mark on Hermione's cheekbone as she placed her fingers on his chin and wand to his temple, wincing slightly at the pulling sensation as she extracted a silvery flow of memory from his head. Rubbing his eye as a sharp pain stabbed behind it, he looked to his best friend who gently flicked the memory into the pensive and tipping her forehead into it. The girl never noticing as she bent herself forward over the shimmering waters that Harry's fingers froze from where they had been massaging his temple and eye, hands hanging limply down at his sides before two fingers softly grazed her own fingers that gripped the side of the bowl. The same delicate fingers that boasted a familiar ring upon the same middle finger the stone and gold had graced Marvolo Gaunt's hand within the memory in which she was now immersed. Wondering all the while as he watched her curls floating gently around her face above the enchanted water, exactly how had she come into possession of it.

…

_Hermione watched as Marvolo and Morfin Gaunt mistreated Merope, Tom's small boned squib mother who had apparently not inherited the most of the Slytherin line. Had not inherited a certain sense of madness and darkness that seemed to flow at least a small bit through Hermione's own veins. Then, as Tom riddle Sr appeared outside of the dirty house, the absolute lost look upon her face as well as an undertone of hope that every mistreated girl had for a handsome prince to come whisk her away almost breaks Hermione's heart. She had many times written a variation of that mask upon her lips and eyes when surrounded by children who had either been scared of her in muggle primary school, or had been ostracized by the remaining ones. It was like nothing else in the world, that feeling of absolute sadness._

_But all of hermione's thoughts paused at the sight of the ring in which she held on the same finger that was no doubt being waved in her best friend's face at that very moment. The now restored horcrux locket simply an overtone in her mind as she moved her face from the waters only to come face to face with a pale Harry. Not having to hide the shock upon her face as she saw Harry looking down to her hand wrapped around the side of the bowl, but for very different reasons than than thought. How was she supposed to explain this ring to him? The more feminine of the two Slytherin heirlooms Tom had gifted her as he mended his locket that had been destroyed by the restoration of the horcrux residing in it, to be kept for himself after charming it to it's former glory._


	34. 6th Year Part Six

" _There is no secret left in the fact that I am madly in love with you. My happiness glows on my face and my smile gives it away..."_

_~Sheila Johns_

~.O.~

Harry looked into his best friend's eyes, asking, "How did you get that ring, Hermione?"

As she opened her mouth several times with absolutely no words escaping, for the first time ever she seemed at a loss for words as she glanced down to the hand holding on tightly to the side of the table that proudly held the ring, and then back up to his face. Anything she found within her mind to tell him, if she planned to tell him anything before quickly shifting into her animagus form and scampering out of the room, was interrupted by Severus. Ever the saving grace, Harry had apparently still held onto even a modicum of his anxiety of the man as he took a step back from the pensive upon the table beside Hermione, but yet his eyes still came to rest on her once more. The girl turned to Severus though, Harry following her gaze once more to the man who had emerged from his private quarters in his shirtsleeves and paused in his doorway with a brow raised at his love.

Haltingly turning back to Harry with only half her body facing him, Hermione avoided his eyes as she told him, "Hold on just a second, Harry. We'll explain in a minute, just let me speak to Severus."

_We…?_

Green eyes followed a small hand casually placed on the older man's hip as his hands occupied themselves buttoning up the shirt that had splayed open to reveal his pale but red scarred chest. The first time Harry had seen the scars upon the professor's body, as Hermione seemingly covered for her friend during their late night tryst into the prefect's bathroom with a golden egg, the young boy had been shocked. Never before having seen such mutilation as it before, it took him back to the days before he learned of his wizarding heritage, back to the days where he thought he himself might scar from his Uncle's belt upon his back so bad was the pain. These thoughts now lead to an all together different type of thinking, thoughts so much different from what he had briefly believed when watching the professor check Hermione's bag their first day back to Hogwarts.

_How many times Hermione must have spoken for the other man to protect him against those who thought ill of him, had spoken for… Harry included… how she must have been so lost taking things at word value with no actions to back up that the man was more than a just a simple Death Eater with black ink staining his arm… how much faith she must have had in him himself… The- Boy- Who- Lived… that the Dark Lord was resurrected with nothing more than flimsy words before she herself was scarred because of his actions in proceeding to the Department of Mysteries… how could she have so much faith in people he would never know…_

Suddenly he was so very confused about everything regarding his friend, and seeing as how he had been able to think about his limited facts throughout the summer with only a very short conversation that really only confirmed the existence of her relationship, it was not an out of the ordinary thing to be feeling at a time such as this. Watching as Hermione desperately looked up to the taller man who placed his hands on her shoulders while speaking quietly, Hermione glanced back to Harry with a frown between her brows that he no doubt mimicked before turning back to the dark man. How much did he really know of his lovingly loyal best friend who always had her heart on her sleeve, yet still held so many secrets?

Hermione stared up to Severus' quietly calm yet questioning face as she looped a finger through his trouser loops while his fingers were occupied on his shirt buttons, "Dumbledore gave Harry a memory tonight, Severus." The Headmaster having told the boy to reveal nothing of his lessons outside of his two friends, he was considerably out of the loop when it came to such matters of chain of information. Such as it was, to reveal information concerning the war or of any such importance to the small girl was to reveal it to the spy. She began twisting her ring around her finger that seemed smaller than usual in the cold of the dungeons, "Of a man named Ogden who went to the Gaunt house before Morfin and Marvolo were taken to Azkaban, after Morfin cursed Tom's father, and before Merope left home. The ring Tom gave me was on Marvolo's hand in the memory, Severus." She lifted her hand towards him as if he had not seen the piece of jewelry gracing her hand for the better part of a year now, her voice wavering slightly as she continued, "They have both seen it in the memory, and Harry is now asking where it came from. What am I supposed to tell him?"

He placed his hands on her shoulders gently, her hands going up to cover them as he kissed her forehead with a tenderness Harry had not seen even a smidgen of since Hermione had once faced a boggart in the halls of Grimmauld Place. "Calm yourself, girl." He spoke into her ear, his hands squeezing her bones slightly to allow a small amount of his magic to help her along, "I will take care of it."

Severus turned towards the boy who had been observing them with his head slightly cocked to the side, adjusting and righting his white sleeve that had become crumpled while brewing, yet not thinking once to cover his Dark Mark as he leaned against his desk to cross said muscular arms. Hermione hovered between the two of them, smiling wobbly at the boy who shot her a questioning look before turning back to the relaxed professor.

"I assume you are wondering how that ring came about to be on Hermione's finger when it clearly came from the Dark Lord's family line, Potter?" Severus drawled to the boy who almost unnoticeably twitched in surprise at the use of Hermione's first name coming from the man's mouth. Such a surreal thing when surrounded by professors who never once called their students by their first names save family members, or former students.

"Yes, Sir." He said politely, crossing his own arms across his chest, fingers digging into either side of his forearms.

The man's black head nodded, strands of steam greased hair falling from his ponytail as he began to speak, "Once the Dark Lord was felled during the First War, several high ranking Death Eaters took possession of his more valuable objects and artifacts he had spent the better part of his years collecting. Me being one of those few, I allowed myself to take possession of several, yet this ring," Severus unfurled his large hands and guided Hermione to him by her hand, his thumb stroking the heirloom, "The Dark Lord gifted to me himself for my unwavering loyalty to his person in allowing him to put myself into Dumbledore's sight, and act as a spy for them both. While he does pride himself on being the last Heir of Slytherin, he does not particularly place much value in family objects seeing as he had no family left to instill within that value while he resided within the muggle orphanage he was placed in after Merope died giving birth to him."

Hermione squeezed her love's hand, hating how she must lie in such a way to the boy who has never had a bad thought or word escape to her. Harry still looked confused, "But, Sir, I still don't understand why you gave it to Hermione."

The man still held Hermione's hand, and Harry was slowly becoming accustomed to the weirdness of it all, "The stone has many protections placed upon it to protect the wearer in time of need. Seeing as how she insists on maintaining her friendship with you despite the danger to her person, no matter the origins or how I came into possession of the ring, I thought it prudent to afford her as much protection as I could to her while I can not be by her side. As we all know the events of the Department of Mysteries, it seems as if I were correct in gifting it to her months ago."

Harry's head bowed in acquestance as a silence surrounded them, Hermione looking at Severus gratefully before kissing his cheek as Harry's eyes came to a rest on her once again. His heart tightening at the sight of small lips meeting a pale cheek before dark eyes met his once again.

"I would also think it prudent that you should keep the events that have happened within this room in the past few minutes, within this room. The Headmaster might not be as quick to allow Hermione to keep hold of such a precious object should he figure whose hand it resides on, knowing the origins of said object." _Those eyes could cause the gods to weep in fear or reverence_ , "It is all for Hermione's protection of course, Albus has a habit of thinking more of the _greater good_ than of the people seeking to enforce it with the help of something he would consider a dark artifact."

Severus' eyebrow raised, prompting Harry to say, "I love Hermione like a sister, Professor Snape. I promised to keep any secrets she has, especially ones that might cause her to come to harm simply because she was not wearing a perfectly good protection ring. I have no qualms about where it came from as long as it does protect her as much as it is able."

As Hermione then kissed Harry's cheek before wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, Severus met those damnable green eyes as he engulfs her in his own arms.

_At least he is not all James Potter's child, some of Lily's childhood traits that had vanished within their teenage years seems to have passed onto him. Thank the Gods for that trusting nature._

~.O.~

Hermione simply could not abide by other men, _teenage boys,_ speaking of her in such a way as Cormac McLaggen had been while talking to Ron as they looked up to her in the metal stands. The red head, who despite looking especially green in the face due to this first Quidditch tryout where he knew Harry would not be swayed by bias as to who made up his new players, he held an undertone of fury at the blonde's words to him. But alas, there was nothing to be done as tryouts had officially begun and they were told to line up by desired position. Nothing to be done by her friend anyway, but Hermione herself was outside the realm of being banished from practice and so she took the matter in her own hands. As she knew exactly how hard Ron had worked to make the team, and that she absolutely did not want to show up to Harry's games and practices with an over friendly boy trying to talk her up, it was for mostly selfish reasons that she confounded the dirty blonde haired boy into shifting in a way that would force him to miss a perfectly easy Bludger that then proceeded to fly through the other side of the hoop.

Another good thing that came out of the evening's events was that Harry, who had been quiet around her since she had been forced to leave her ring with Severus least Dumbledore happen to see it, finally broke his watchful silence around her to tease her about breaking Hogwarts rules. The boy having leant down to her height from where he sat beside her on the bench as she gathered her food, he whispered in her ear, "I'm surprised to see the Gryffindor Princess blatantly flouting the rules by confounding fellow students trying out for sports teams. What would your boyfriend think? Would he be proud of you?"

She looked up to him slightly shocked, never having thought this would be the first full sentence that would come from his mouth after simply following her with his silent eyes for days. A giggle bubbled up in her throat suddenly, her eyes crinkling while those around her look to the two friends who had obviously been going through a rough patch. Shoving him on the bench right into Ginny on his other side, she looked around his shoulder as he hugged her lowly around her waist while reaching over to take a bite from the last treacle tart she had deliberately placed upon her plate to entice him into talking to her.

"Sorry, Ginny." Hermione told the other girl who smiled slightly wobbly while looking between her and the boy in the middle of them, prompting the curly haired girl to cock her head to the side in question while still feeling her cheeks warmed. Ron's sister shook her head before turning to continue a conversation with another girl from her year before Hermione shrugged and looked back to her plate only to see that Harry had sneakily stolen her tart and transferred it to his plate.

"Hey!" Hermione told the bashful boy before poking his fork with her own to take the only bite she would get of the filling before Ron spoke up.

The other boy still riding his high as he stuffed his mouth full, looked suspiciously at the two of them, "What are you two always laughing at?"

They both exchanged a glance before chiming together, "Nothing!" Then Hermione looked away from everyone around her as she leaned against Harry's arm once again that was still bracketing her back, her eyes straying to Severus. Watching as her love cut his meal into neat little edible squares just as she had a tendency to do before ever proceeding to eat, she smiled slightly before glancing towards the Headmaster's empty gold gilded chair. Lingering on it for a moment before putting his absence out of her mind, her and Harry's shared dessert was interrupted by Slughorn inviting them to his Christmas party to which he ignored Ron. The red head who then proceeded to give them both the cold shoulder for the rest of the day.

…

It was only after Dumbledore's return and Harry's next meeting with him that Hermione began paying special attention to the Headmaster, going over the few memories she had been shown by Harry thus far over and over again within her mind. She had to admit, she had no idea as to what exactly the man was attempting to achieve by giving Harry these moments of Tom's life, other than to show how alike yet dissimilar the two black haired orphans were. Her brother's stolen childhood toys meant nothing to her or Harry for that matter, granted, that simple memory of him telling his future transfiguration professor he could hurt those who wished ill will upon his small person did show a slight sociopathic tendency towards hurting others. Or a child's way of dealing with bigger bullies than him and dealt with it in the only way he found was effective, yet it was those few words along with the knowledge that the boy spoke parseltongue that gave Dumbledore the seedlings of distrust for the young Dark Lord. Hermione may yet be biased after all, Harry had not told her his thoughts on the matter, nor did she share her's least someone see through her reasonings which she thought were perfectly logical.

When it came time for the professor to reveal to Harry his goal of obtaining a precious untampered with memory from Horace Slughorn that did not cut out the words of a teenage Tom's request for information, Hermione knew it was time to speak to Tom of the events even more urgently. Although, it would have to come from her and not through Severus as they had been passing information for the majority of their school year days.

…

The first Quidditch match of the year was a success for Gryffindor House, although it was also a success for Ron's steadily boiling temper to come to a head and land him in an immovable position it seemed. Seemingly beginning with his exclusion from the Slug Club, he began falling into bouts of glaring and glum melancholy grumpiness when Harry and Hermione would return from their alone time together that they seemed to have every few days. The red head would make it his mission from their return to the start of the next day to stay within his bubble of either sullen silence or snarky comments. Their friends and sister would each exchange glances before excluding him steadily from their conversations until he came back down from his high horse and got his head out of whatever funk he had stuck it in. But as Ginny and Dean were caught kissing by her brother and Harry after the boys shared Quidditch practice, his first show of monumental anger was turned to Harry who had the surprising _gall_ to stick up for Ginny saying she could do whatever she pleased. She was a smart girl with a good head on her shoulders.

Harry had come into the common room, green tinged while Ron stomped up the stairs, and sat on the couch behind Hermione who had been sitting on the floor with papers surrounding her. Ron had taken a left turn in his anger Harry told her, to her utter confusion, "He asked me if I was the one you have been snogging, apparently he seemed to have fallen back into a denial about what Fred and George's purity marble _actually_ meant, and the fact that we have told him multiple times we are just friends. His asking if _Malfoy_ was the one you have been sleeping with and Luna's answer must have set him back."

Hermione had laughed so hard that she scattered her papers all around her, glad that there were not many people around in the Common Room at this time of day while she poked Harry in the ribs from where her forehead rested beside his knees.

Once the match had been won, simply by Harry tricking Ron into thinking he had allowed some of his and Hermione's shared luck potion into his morning pumpkin juice, the red head had decided to prove his sister's taunting of his kissing skills wrong. Taking up Lavender Brown, the girl who had been imitating Harry's own previous actions with Cho Chang before their disaster of a first date, he proceeded to snog the girl right smack dab in the middle of the Common Room to the rest of the Gryffindor's jeering. Hermione had shook her head as she began to get a headache from all the noise, so she scooped up Crookshanks who had been following hopefully behind Ginny while looking up at her fluffy pink pygmy puff. Stealing quietly out of the portrait for some peace and quiet within the dungeons despite the fact Severus had left to meet her brother and wouldn't be back until late, she lead along Crookshanks with little yellow birds he jumped and pounced on to leave a trail of the fluffy little down feathers behind them, fading into nothingness as the spell ended.

~.O.~

Slughorn's party was the most normal thing Harry and Hermione had done in a long time where they both agreed they would have fun, with no speaking of what was going on outside of the castle or the worries that were intent on plaguing them all hours of the day and night.

"Hermione," Harry choked out as she held him down to her height by his black tie, "I can't breathe very well with you doing that."

Hermione smiled sweetly up at him, not at all making a move to release him just yet, "Be nice to Draco, my love. If you can not bring yourself to do that, at least do your best to be cordial. No one is asking you to speak all night with him, or even at all, but you will not ruin our night by glaring at him when you think I can not see."

Harry looked as guilty as could be, becoming flushed in the cheeks once the obstruction to his breathing was removed while he nodded his consent. Here he had thought he was being stealthy in keeping tabs on the blonde whenever he could, but as usual, no one could get much past the girl who was smoothing out the wrinkles she had caused on his dress robes. As he heard voices coming from down the hall, his miniscule guilt became nervousness as his as well as Hermione's dates rounded the corner together. Luna's silvery dress picking up any and all light around them, she shined just as much as Hermione who wore a vastly different dress of pale red bordering on a burnt orange that contrasted nicely with her loose and wild caramel curls she had let out to flow past her shoulders. Both girls were just as beautiful as each other though, Harry could not deny that as he took in Luna's bright smiling eyes.

"I much better like Luna more than Cho or Ginny, just so you know." Hermione whispered as she took his arm briefly while they watched the couple smile towards them, taking the last few steps to close the distance between them.

Harry smiled back to the other two slightly lopsided, exchanging a brisk nod to the boy who kissed Hermione's hand in greeting which would be the extent of their interaction for the night, all the while thinking back on how exactly they had come to their date choices. Hermione had once told him just after Slughorn mentioned the party that she had entertained asking Ron to be her plus one for the occasion, but those plans had obviously been thrown to the wind as he began acting like an absolute prat. Dating Lavender had done nothing to negate his ego or his temper towards his two other friends, nor either of the curly haired girls towards each other as Hermione's roommate constantly froze her out in typical jealous girl fashion who thought another had eyes on her man. So, Hermione had consented much more happily to the Malfoy Heir now standing in front of them.

The other boy had been iffy about not being invited into the Slug Club in the first place, even as Harry in truth thought the Potions Professor had the right idea even if he dared not voice these thoughts to Hermione. According to her, he had every right to be at the very least invited to the events seeing as how he was second in their class, only below Hermione, but apparently the professor only collected those who had an impeccable background. Those who either had absolute no association to the Dark Lord, nor _suspected yet not confirmed_ associations to those of the dark magics were to be added to his repertoire of contacts.

"He simply does not want any hint of scandal to _his_ name again," he remembered her telling him with a snarled lip as she harsly dug her quill into her Ancient Runes translations, "If the memory Dumbledore wants you to find from him says of anything, Slughorn seems to have had his fill of fledgling Dark Wizards after Tom. He wouldn't want to be labeled as one himself now would he? After all it might rub off on him from a _sixteen year old boy._ As if he has had no association with any others _at all_ in all the other years he had taught here at Hogwarts." She murmured, the tip of her writing utensil braking off to her surprise.

Harry hid his smile in his hand, knowing that she was truly angry about the situation and would not find it as amusing to witness as he did. He never once thought to note the girl's familiar use of the Dark Lord's birth name as he corrected her, " _Professor_ Slughorn, Hermione."

She had glared at his inability to keep complete control of himself, digging furiously in her bag while spitting, "To hell with _Professor Slughorn,_ the absolute purest supporter of the light who has simply done no wrong in his entire lifetime, his only goal to teach the young minds of witches and wizards of Hogwarts and use them for his own personal gain _._ " She had continued mumbling under her breath even as Harry's chuckles escaped, not even deigning to give him a responding look.

As to his own date in the form of Luna who his cheeks insisted on blushing slightly at as they entered the golden themed chambers of their host, Hermione had a hand in that as with everything else in his life. He couldn't say he wasn't grateful, because as he told the girl, the red head was still in her relationship with Dean and even if they were attracted to each other he couldn't wait around forever to decide they were the only ones for each other. Nevertheless, Luna was just as physically pretty as the other girl with a side of quirkiness added to her personality in place of a love for Quidditch.

The night passed by relatively tame with both couples meeting up with Neville and his own pretty blonde Hufflepuff date in the form of Hannah Abbott, although the one bump in the evening surrounded the damned mistletoe the professor had hung around in various places in the room. Hermione had separated herself from her small group who had been rangled into speaking to various people Slughorn dragged Harry to in order to find Severus who she knew was lurking around somewhere. The crowded room being made of so many people imbibing freely flowing alcohol even to the underaged students, the various and at times overwhelming smell began giving Hermione a headache in not being able to find her dark man as she was bumped into the same mistletoe she had been skirting. Her efforts all for naught, Cormac McLaggen just smiled roguishly at her from just outside the circle of enchantment the plant put upon the witches and wizards of the room before deliberately taking a step towards her frozen body, just as Severus appeared out of the nowhere himself inches from her. Right inside the very circle Cormac himself was on the brink of stepping into.

"Miss. Granger," he drawled to her as if he had not smelled the faint whiff of mistletoe hovering above her himself despite his own nostrils not being able to pick up much in the sweaty room just as she.

She sighed in relief, "Professor Snape," came through her wide smile up to his dark eyes, noting that Cormac abruptly turned from them to push through a dancing couple with a slightly disgusted yet rumpled expression. Mindful of those who might have their eyes on the couple under the enchanted flowers seeming to multiply the longer the couple stood beneath it, Hermione was careful to kiss Severus' offered cheek as he bent down towards her height even if she could not help but make the chaste kiss slightly closer to the professor's lips than anyone would think appropriate. His own kiss to her cheek was the same while his hand squeezed the side of her waist hidden from the room, even though anyone looking towards them would see his arm just in that position and Hermione's own braced on his bicep.

Their small interaction was interrupted by their host coming up to them, drunkenly clapping a hand on Hermione's bare back to which she sneered slightly at and arched towards Severus's steadying hand unconsciously. The Potion Professor winked at the taller man who simply stared blankly at him, "Loosen up, Severus! It's a party, have some fun." The man pushed a full glass of red wine into his pale hand before walking back off to drag Harry, who had been watching her and Severus actions all the while, along with a wide eyed Neville beside him, off into the crowd once more.

Hermione waved to Neville once, knowing she would now have to talk to yet another person who has seen her and Severus' increasingly public affections, as if they simply could not keep them contained any longer. Severus placed his glass down on the table behind them after staring longingly at it, to which Hermione giggled and gave him her own she had only take a few sips of so far. Watching as he gulped it down readily, she chuckled one more time before telling him, "I should get back to the others, it seems now Neville is aware of our relationship. Or will be in just a few minutes."

The boy in question had taken the new information just as Hermione thought he would, with well wishing acceptance, a hug, and a promise to keep her secrets such was his personality and how loyal a friend he was. He had definitely told her enough of his secrets she had kept to herself. It was then very easy to see how he had been attracted to his Hufflepuff date given how sweet he was to his friends, those traits only furthering his ability to gain the Gryffindor courage worthy of their house.

The sense of calmness of that night continued through the rest of the break, although Ron once again became absolutely insufferable once he learnt she had taken Draco as her date as apparently his shared dislike of the Slytherin was to not be as contained as Harry's was. His temper simply rolled off Hermione and Harry's back as they were so used to it occuring at this point even as Lavender's looks of _back off Won- Won is mine and mine alone, not yours_ did rankle the girl's curls a bit.


	35. 6th Year Part Seven

" _It seems to me, that love could be labeled poison and we'd drink it anyway."_

_~atticus_

~.O.~

The short lasting peace they had gained would continue throughout the short Christmas break which, as usual, Hermione spent partially at Malfoy Manor under the guise of visiting her parents before commuting back to the Burrow. These days she spent with the people she considered just as much her family as she did Harry was the most relaxed she had been since leaving Hogwarts once more, barring the second ritual she attended to which Tom with restoring the diadem piece of his soul. Those short hours being the most horrific thing she had seen to date, not at all knowing how exactly a human body could withstand such pain as he did, let alone the soul. She had stood outside the customary circle of candles he encased himself in, watching as his back arched in pain with his hands dug into the earth while he screamed silently up to the sky. This ritual full of pain and fear was not something she could interfere in again, she had tried with tears flowing down her cheeks, gaining a sudden sense of being watched by the gods all the while, and a feeling within her heart that spoke of sadness as well as joy. She never was good at identifying her emotions, so she chose to go with the latter interpretation even if it did not feel an entirely correct deduction.

Once again looking up to the lightening sky, although Hermione had maintained her wakefulness unlike within the dealings of the last ritual she had attended, she listened to her brother's quiet ramblings. Talking quietly while keeping an ear on the wakening chirping of the birds in the trees all around them high in the branches, she asked him questions in his bouts of silence while continuing to try and take the residual pain away. The most she could do to touch it this time was sense how high a level it was, but alas, she continued to be barred from taking it completely.

_Maybe it was the Gods deciding to continue to punish him… to teach him a lesson in meddling with things he should not be touching…_

She had turned her cheek into the dirt beneath her in an all- to familiar gesture to gaze into the side of her brother's cheek, admiring his sharp cheekbones and long eyelashes while asking, "Would you like to see the memories of your mother, Tom? The ones Dumbledore gave Harry?"

He had looked at her with suddenly very clear eyes as if he had not spent the last few hours screaming himself hoarse, "She was never my mother, Sister. She was simply the woman who gave birth to me and branded me with a man's name who would gladly have allowed us to live on the streets. Allowed us both to die." The cloudiness returned to him as his voice grew into a far away whisper, "You are my mother, as you are my sister. The only I will ever know."

She had grabbed his hand up from where it had balled up his trousers, tucking it into her own upon her stomach as she continued to stare at his loopy profile while stroking it as a mother would to soothe their own blood child, "Yes, darling."

The House of Ravenclaw's precious and beautiful heirloom granting wisdom and intelligence to the wearer lay in the dirt on the other side of him with the now broken and cracked gems loose around the metal.

She had no other words to respond to his ramblings, and now, as she sat within the kitchen of the Burrow on Boxing Day with the other Weasleys in tense silence, her thoughts wandered while watching Harry and the Minister of Magic Pius walk about garden behind the ramshackle home. Their lips moving, even she with her enhanced hearing could hear nothing of their long topic of conversation so she returned to moving about the food on her plate while letting her mind wander once more.

Her and Draco had made significant headway on mending the Vanishing Cabinet before they had left to spend the holidays with their family, after the many months and many hours spent on coaxing it back to life they had finally been able to send an apple back and forth between Borgin and Burkes. The large piece of bitten white shining in the dark of the Room of Hidden and Missing Things in the midst of the red being a happy sight for their eyes, having breathed a sigh of relief their efforts were not in vain. But even so, a no longer living and growing object sans heartbeat being sent back and forth was but a small dime in the ocean to what they needed to do. One living person let alone multiple would be an even larger feat to accomplish, but yet, for a once dormant and misbehaving piece of magic one had to look on the bright side. They were one step closer to their goals being fulfilled.

Hermione's gold eyes lifted from her plate as she once again looked up to find an uncomfortably placed Percy leaning against the doorway to the kitchen while doing everything to avoid his parent's hopeful looks, she let her fork fall to the table with a dull thud. Sirius, who had been laying beside Hermione's feet beneath the table with his nose resting on his paws since the two Ministry officials made an appearance looked up to her with a quizzical look. Arthur's resigned face while looking to his third oldest son tapped her heart more than Molly's hope, the twin's and Ron's glares to their brother, Charlie and Bill maintaining carefully blank masks while Fleur looked to her almost- husband out of the corner of her eye with a hand on his knee beneath the table. Each of their matching heads of red and eyes of blue and brown turned to her sudden movements as she made her way around the long table to the Minister's new _lackey_ after scratching Padfoot between the ears.

The boy's own blue eyes shot up to the small girl who mimicked his stance of both their arms crossed tightly, staring him down until his eyes returned to the floor. It did nothing to deter from her cocked head boring a hole into the top of his red curls. It then took but seconds for Hermione to decide to drag the older boy into the other room by his ear, causing him to lose his balance slightly at her sudden strong movement and stumbled after her as his family watched on in stunned silence.

" _Hermione! What are you doing?_ " he asked her curly head as she allowed him to fall back on the couch that the back of his knees had hit, his tall body slumping backwards while rumpling his muggle style suit.

She crossed her arms as she continued standing in front of him in silence until he righted himself and rubbed his ear. "You should be ashamed of yourself, Percy Weasley." His eyes widened slightly at her tone, knowing how the girl could make you feel just as small as could be when she allowed herself to freely chastise those who she thought was doing something supremely wrong. "You have put your mother and father through absolute hell all these months you decided a _job_ was more important than blood. You may not believe that the Dark Lord is alive and you have every right to disbelieve anything concerning that aspect of your family's beliefs, as if your right as a human being. But you have no right to allow your mother, who still loves you very much despite you cutting her, your father, and your brothers and sister out of your life as if they were dead to you. A job can be replaced as well as anything, a family can not no matter how hard you might try."

Percy stood before her while smoothing his suit out once more with an indigent look written across his mouth and eyes, but she stepped in front of him to bar his running away from her truths. "I'm not finished." She told him coldly but lowly so as to not be overheard by any red headed eavesdroppers, "You will listen to what I have to say. I have sent my parents away from me, for their protection because I _do_ believe that Voldemort has been resurrected. On the sole word of Harry and Cedric's death, which I know some people do have trouble accepting. I understand that aspect." She ignores the flinching of his still widened eyes, "Harry has never wanted the publicity that came with being The- Boy- Who- Lived, as I am sure you have seen since you have known him all these years just as I have, despite your obviously limited capacity to understand basic family values. What if if I hadn't of sent my parents away myself, but they were instead killed by this silent war we seem to be in lately? Never to talk to them, never to hug or kiss them again after they died thinking I no longer loved them all due to pure ambition, greed, and pig- headedness."

Percy's instincts had been right, instead of the uncomfortableness he had felt previously from the beginning of the girl's speech, he felt an undeniable sadness at the thought of what she had to do. Tears pricking the corners of his eyes, he couldn't help but think of what she had given up herself, and the fact that everything she had said was true. He may not believe in You- Know- Who returning to life, because that thought was simply terrifying even as there is a deep seeded doubt laying within his brain that _maybe_ it was true. But, he did still love his family despite any differences they had. He had always been the odd one out even among his two older brothers with his meticulousness and reserved attitude in a houseful of rambunctiousness.

In a totally out of character move, he grabbed up Hermione in a hug and spoke into her ear, "Thank you, Hermione. I know how much you care about all of us."

Hermione froze for a second, not having anticipated this turn of events at all, but quickly wrapped her own arms around his skinny back to rest her hands on his shoulder blades. "I do, Percy. Even when you are being a prat." His lips turned up at the corners while buried in her curls even if she could not see it, "Now go back in the kitchen and give your family the presents that are weighing your pockets down."

Her impromptu speech was well worth it to see Molly's dejected face turn into one of ecstatic pleasure upon receiving a gift from her black sheep of a son who then allowed her to pull him into her ample bosom, and actually hugging her back. Harry returned to the room just as Ron said his thanks of bringing happiness back to his mother's face right into her ear, as even if he had never spoken of it, the fact that his family was all together again and she had released his worry from his shoulders. Hermione smiled and squeezed his hand that lay on the table before releasing it and turning back to Harry whose serious face had turned lighter once he sat beside her in the now animated kitchen. He patted Sirius, who had opted to stay in his animagus form for want of Percy relapsing into his Minister's Pet occupation, stroking his fur much in the same way she had earlier when his chin had rested on her knees.

"What did the Minister want, Harry?" Hermione asked him lowly so as to avoid making the room tense once more even as Ron hears her words and leans further into their small bubble as well.

Harry's hand absent mindedly made it's way to Hermione's knee as he watched the others speak, and although neither of them thought much of the action so often as it happened, Ron thought otherwise while turning his head away to see Ginny watching them. He kept his ear on them while meeting Ginny's eyes, "He wanted to make it clear that they don't believe in Voldemort's return, and would appreciate me relaying the message to Dumbledore on the matter."

Hermione's brow raised, "That was a long conversation for that little of an explanation."

The darkest head of human hair in the room was ruffled by the boy's pale hand, "He accused me of being Dumbledore's man through and through, and that I don't know him as well as I think I do. He thinks, just like the prophet, that he told me to tell all witches and wizards Voldemort was resurrected simply for the publicity."

She snorted into her cup to cover her words least any of the others hear her next words that would most likely seem absolute blasphemous to the staunchest Albus Dumbledore supporters in the room. "Unlike certain others, I think both of us know he doesn't have _that_ much sway over you despite his almighty all- knowingness."

_More than once she had told him herself he did not need to listen to everything the Headmaster told him was right… or he needed to do… maybe she had some chance at convincing him herself what would be best for him…_

_Was she any different from Dumbledore in that aspect?_

_She wasn't trying to kill him… he needed to make the decision to keep himself alive himself… just a simple nudge was required…_

Ron looked away from Ginny to pin their profiles with a confused glance, but neither of them acknowledged it as Hermione fell into a small pit of guilt and Harry's own mind . All the while, after the three grew silent once Percy handed each of them a Yule package, Ron felt as if he were missing a significant part of Harry and Hermione's conversation as he watched Hermione unwrap a new book charm for her bracelet before opening his own.

~.O.~

Once the students returned to Hogwarts, Harry was given the last piece of information in the memory puzzle the Headmaster wished for him to gain from Professor Slughorn. The last piece of the puzzle that showed how young Tom had been once upon a time, the time in which he had not yet known how to completely cover his tracks as if he had never been there before. It was supremely odd to Hermione to think of her infallible brother making mistakes, such was his intelligence until the point he had drawn too much attention to himself in several instances. But then again, no one is infallible it seemed for how many mistakes he had made up until he had killed Lily and James Potter.

"Voldemort killed his own father," Harry was looking a little green around the wings as he told her and Ron of his apparent last meeting with the Headmaster, the older man reasoning the boy had all he needed to uncover the missing piece to the memory mystery. "He killed Tom Riddle Sr and his parents in Little Hangleton, then stole a stone ring Morfin Gaunt had wore in the last memory before obliviating him." Harry met Hermione's calm eyes, "Then he asked Slughorn what horcruxes were, but the memory is in pieces. Which is what Dumbledore wants me to get from him."

"Why couldn't he just get it himself?" Ron asked beside her, bringing up a very good point that had circled within her mind for ages. "Slughorn is his professor now, and Dumbledore always seems to know how to get people to confess to things."

Hermione had allowed herself to blink and flinch slightly at the mention of horcruxes once Harry took his eyes off her to answer Ron's question, "I don't know, Ron. He isn't the most forthcoming man in the world."

Their friend grew silent at his snappy tone, to which Hermione raised her brow seeing as apparently her own words were coming from her other brother's mouth instead of her own this day, he had blushed lightly before turning his eyes back towards her.

Apparently Headmaster Dumbledore thought this little conundrum was an exercise in flexing the dark haired boy's loyalties and hard working abilities, as there was no other explanation to why he could not have simply took the memory from Slughorn once he learned of the horcruxes. The man being as versed in the Dark Arts as he undoubtedly was with his many years of study, although not as versed as her love, he must know exactly what the meaning of making such a thing as a horcrux is. Either way, while he might suspect her brother of making the objects to prolong and safeguard his life, he knew nothing for certain in any case at this rate.

_And never would for all fragments of Tom's soul was tucked safely and wholly back into his body… all but for Nagini who is safe as warded houses could be…_

"Have you heard of horcruxes before, 'Mione?" he asked her hopefully in a bid to know even marginally where to begin his search for a way to convince Slughorn to give up his memory easier. The look writ upon his face showed his already overwhelmed desperation, knowing Dumbledore cared for getting it very much and even if he did not idealize him as he had when first have come to Hogwarts, old habits died a hard death.

She smiled apologetically at him, his face falling before she ever spoke, "No, Harry. I haven't."

"But you can look it up, right? Please?" He gave her a desperate look that felt like a punch to the gut, with an undertone of something else that spoke of a silent plea saying _speak to your love please, we both know he just might know this type of magic given how dark he is._

"Of course I will, darling. I'll tell you as soon as I find something."

…

Everything was then turned utterly upside down within Hermione's world when Severus came to her the day after Harry showed her the last memory he was given, depicting her young brother the ringleader of those within Slughorn's notorious Slug Club years and years ago. He was so handsome even then that she could clearly see how he had began collecting followers of his own, after all, charisma of those who seek attention are the most toxic of them all.

Severus sat down in front of her on his couch where she had a book propped up between her knees and torso, hauling her up by her hands after setting it aside. He simply stared at her confusion for a second before jumping right into his discovery that would cause her heart to fill with a sudden fiery hate. "Dumbledore has informed me of his aims with Potter, what he intends to do to end the war."

Hermione continued studying his face in silence, waiting patiently for him to raise the black eyes he had dropped from her own in rare form.

"He has deemed it wise, for want of any unexpected eventuality, that he should tell at least one other that Harry might very well be a horcrux. He also believes he may have found a possible location of one within a cave Tom had spent time at as a young boy, when still living at Wool's Orphanage. A piece of the Dark Lord having latched itself onto him after he killed Lily, Albus infers he is the best man to make a decision for the greater good and has made me take an Unbreakable Vow not to tell anyone who does not already have this information nor speak of it until the time is upon us."

A warning tightness grew in her stomach as she sensed this was not all the esteemed Headmaster had to say to his spy, and so she spoke to prod him into talking once again. "Go on, Severus. What else did he say, can you tell me? What about Harry?"

He finally looked back up to her while holding her small tightening hand within his own, "Seeing as you already know he is a horcrux I can speak of it with you." He took a deep breath, "Dumbledore has decided either of us should tell Potter he must die once each of the other suspected horcruxes are destroyed for good."

That feeling of scalding heat touched her cheeks in the anger she felt fill her heart towards the man who would allow, let alone _orchestrate,_ the murder of a teenage boy. _Her_ teenage boy who she had looked after all these years for the one purpose he sought to undermine her goals. Knowing Harry, he would willingly martyr himself for the purpose of ending this war, but never in a million million years would she ever allow that to happen. Would never allow himself to walk calmly to his death that would never happen at Tom's hands regardless of Dumbledore's oh- so- sure knowledge her brother was a monster. A monster would not allow itself to be deceived by the one who loved him unconditionally, a monster could not love according to the Headmaster.

_She came to the conclusion, that no matter how much she told herself Harry's decisions were his own… that little nudge towards what she wanted him to do was completely of his own free will… it was not… he had to live even if he were determined to die for Dumbledore to be able to kill her brother… her other brother… who she had chosen… just as she had chosen the boy in question…_

She closed her eyes, concentrating on Severus' steady breathing and pulse she felt within their joined hands. Concentrating on the thought that she was all that much more grateful for having put herself in Tom's path all those years ago as it was much easier to plan for every eventuality. Opening them back up once her own pulse was back to it's steady normal, she placed a hand on her love's cheek to which he leaned into while watching her warily, "I think, that when the time comes to kill Dumbledore, I will finally have sufficient hate within my heart for him to complete the task, Severus."

_She asked the gods for forgiveness… forgiveness for her sins of truly saying she could accomplish the murder of another living thing… but sometimes it is necessary for her own personal variation of goodness to be helped along with her personal version of a little badness…_

As she stood before the Vanishing Cabinet, holding a white sealed letter bearing the single loopy word of _Brother_ staining the pristine paper, as well as a small yellow conjured canary, she gently grabbed the delicate knob and placed the letter inside beneath the hopping bird. Resting her head on the closed door before opening it to the empty confines of the small space to ensure everything was in order, she emptied her thoughts for the time being as she sat before it to await a response.

Hours later she heard a screech that knocked her right back out of the meditation state she had fallen into as she felt along the edge of her warm magical core beside her soul, flexing it enough to open the door wandlessly. The pile of dark yellow shimmering ash covering the letter was of no surprise, and so she dusted the letter baring the single word of _Sister._ Picking the wax seal with her fingernail, the letter boasted few words before it burned with the fire licking at her fingertips.

_It shall be done. The fake will be replaced upon the hill of inferni to await discovery. With all love, your Brother._

~.O.~

Grumbles from the other girls within her dorm and the screaming of her name awoke Hermione the day of Ron's birthday from a very good dream starring a panther Severus stalking her through the woods of the Forbidden Forest. Surprised that Harry, who was notorious for sleeping in to the very last minute so as to get to breakfast just as soon as it was served, was calling her at a time in which even she was not ready for the day, she grabbed her wand as she flew stumbling out of bed. Light on her feet as she ran down the stairs without a second thought as to her sleepwear nor her out of control curls, she came to the scene of a similarly dressed Harry fending off a redhead whose cheeks matched exactly the color of his hair. Harry holding Ron's wrists before him as the other boy desperately and wildly bucked his tall body in a spitting attempt to punch their friend.

Stunned at the sight for a split second, Hermione hit the boy with a stupefy that sent him falling to the ground with a thump. Placing a hand on her racing heart from the short but adrenaline filled run into the Common Room, she finally had a look around them to the few students of their house waiting for breakfast to be ready. As well as apparently ogling their three housemates who had decided to put on a little early morning showing of craziness, with no help whatsoever.

Harry looked to her gratefully while running a hand through his already messy hair that stuck up in the air. She raised a brow to him once her heart calmed enough, "Why exactly was Ron trying to throttle you this early in the morning?" She took the last few steps down to stop beside Harry and look down to the boy now on the floor, cocking her head to Harry once she caught sight of his own red ear that was steadily turning darker by the moment, "And why is your ear bruising?"

He frowned at her before scowling back down to Ron, "He hit me. Romilda Vane sent me some sweets that have apparently been laced with a love potion, so when I told him to quit joking around about his love since he's with Lavender he punched me. She probably got it from bloody Fred and George's joke shop. It's really bruising?"

She reached up to lightly run her fingers over it while shaking her head knowing Ron would pick up anything even resembling food even it it were not his, "You'll live." Summoning her beaded bag for the antidote to the supposed potion before bending beside Ron to rest on her knees, she woke him. "Ron, you need to take this potion."

He smiled loopily at her, evidently forgetting about Harry's slandering of his love for a girl neither of them had even fully met nor talked to. "Hi, 'Mione. Do you know Romilda Vane? Could you take me to her?"

She smiled back at him while holding the vile to his lips, "Yes, Ron. After you drink this I will take you to her."

He readily gulps it right down, becoming lucid for just long enough to look up to her in confusion as to no doubt why he was laying on the Common Ron floor before the convulsing began. His eyes bulging, his limbs began to shake as if one were standing and holding too much weight for a longer time than his muscles could stand, or he was getting shocked by an innumerable amount of electric volts. Reacting right away as Harry fell next to her frantically asking what was going on while holding down their friend's vibrating limbs, Hermione immediately summoned a stray bezoar from the bottom of her bag and calmly shoved it far into his throat.

"What's happening, Hermione?" he finally asked once the long minute it took for the stone to work enough for the boy to fall into unconsciousness.

Standing quickly and telling the small group who crowded around them nervously for someone to inform Professor McGonagall of the events, "He must have been allergic to an ingredient in the antidote. Lets take him to the Hospital Wing."

Levitating him through the heavy doors as quickly as possible to see Severus handing over a box of potion vials to Madame Pomfrey, her and Harry finally were able to take a step back as the matron checked his vitals. Harry took over retelling the woman the short story of the morning while Hermione stepped back to stand beside Severus, who had been lingering beside the bed next to where Ron was now laying. Catching the eyes that pointedly looked down to her breasts that showed her nipples beneath the thin material as the cold puckered them, she shot him a dirty look.

"There wasn't much time to change between Harry yelling for me and transporting Ron through the halls, Severus." He sighed heavily before giving her his outer teaching robe for cover just as Madame Pomfrey asked him to call the Headmaster down to the Wing. Hermione sat down heavily while her disgruntled feelings of coldness surfacing just the other day regarding the man returned, the question also provoking a slight frown to grace Severus' face as he had done his best to avoid the man outside of Order meetings once the older man had spilled his intentions for the boy now sitting beside Hermione. He retrieved the man nonetheless as a favor to the Matron who had always been kind to him regardless of his background even in his own teenage years.

…

It was just days later with Ron still held up in the Hospital Wing that Harry joined him as a patient, and Hermione was absolutely fed up with each of the boy's intent on seemingly constantly _trying_ to gain nights within the Hospital Wing. Watching the boy with a literal turban of gauze wrapped around his head awaiting the potions to work their magic, she sat beside Luna who was in the process of tying a bottle cork necklace around his arm multiple times so as to make it a mimicry of having muggle christmas lights around the length of his forearm. Hermione kept her eyes on the girl with a smile on her face, just knowing that the both of them were the perfect couple she thought they would be even though she did love Ginny. Although, even as they both had many interests in common and a mutual attraction to one another, she did believe Harry's words of not being stuck on one person to whom he could ever have the chance at loving.

_A weird sentiment coming for her given her own state of relationship… she never did even consider anyone else other than Severus as her longtime love… even with her brief stint in dating Viktor after Severus telling her to explore her options… he had always been the only one in her mind…_

The boy in question having gotten hit in the head by a dunderhead by the name of Cormac McLaggen, Hermione's short temper as of late was lit when just hours after visitors were admitted to the still sleeping boy the Keeper showed his face. So, to show her displeasure at the events that could have easily been avoided if the boy had listen to his now incapacitated Captain, she withdrew her wand while aiming it at him threateningly. Not having dealt with the curly haired girl's temper before, and frankly not believing her able to cause his large muscled person much damage, he simply put his hands up in surrender while continuing to advance into the room.

"Hermione, babe, if only Harry had listened-" his obnoxious words were cut short by a shriek as well as several small birds erupting from her wand that then proceeded to peck at his skin and tear at his no longer needed Quidditch uniform.

"As if you have the _right_ to call me babe! Or tell your _former_ Captain how to run his own team!"

Once these words were uttered, Harry's prone body gave a slight painful moan that had Hermione turning back around from Cormac who was running back down the hall the way he came with the birds still circling and tearing at his skin.

"Is my injuries so funny to you, Ron?" The boy asked opening one eye then the other to see a pale shining girl smiling blindingly at him before throwing herself over him gently in a hug, as well as Ron clutching his stomach in his laughter. Apparently having recovered from his accidental poisoning and breakup from the girlfriend who Harry had to listen scream obscenities at his friend just yesterday when visiting. Having thought Hermione was completely responsible for her boyfriend's poisoning, she left the Infirmary in tears when Ron finally broke up with her after saying how Hermione had been the one to save his life after simply eating the wrongly addressed birthday gift.

"'Mi- 'Mione, just- " his broken words gave Harry nothing as to the cause of them.

Hermione appearing just behind the still clinging Luna smiling brightly while awaiting her turn, she said, "More like Cormac's injuries from my birds are so funny to him."


	36. 6th Year Part Eight

" _It is in my nature to be kind, gentle, and loving… But know this… When it comes to matters of protecting my friends. My family. My heart. Do not trifle with me, for I am also the most powerful and relentless creature you will ever know."_

~.O.~

Hermione stared at the top of Harry's bowed head which hid his downturned eyes from her relentless gaze. Ron sat beside him all the while, moving his head back and forth between the two friends saying nothing of the returned Marauder's Map laying safely back within the confines of her beaded bag being held in her lap. She had given it back to him trusting that he would not misuse it in any other way than what it was made for, and as he was not prone to pranking such as Fred and George as well as the original makers of the map, she believed it to be safe in his hands. As it was, the fact that he had not told her himself of his plans of ordering Dobby and Kreacher to follow the Malfoy Heir whenever he was alone made her more disappointed than the fact that he did not believe her words of trusting Draco herself and blatantly showing his unmarked forearm to everyone within their Hogwarts Express compartment.

The two House Elves had unintentionally outed him in the end, Harry all while they explained watching her from the corner of his eye as they told him of the boy's disappearances behind a door that moved all about the seventh floor corridor. The Room of Requirement they told Harry, not believing him to have any reason for making as frequent trips into the Room for Hidden and Missing things. Which, as it was, had Hermione thanking the gods for small favors. The boy listened to each word carefully but disappointedly as it seemed the blonde simply was in want of a quiet space that almost guaranteed privacy. One consolation from the whole ordeal also it seemed was they did not seem fit to mention if they had seen her own curly head accompany him into the room, but even so, there was nothing of it either way even if they had.

Harry finally lifted his head up to look her straight in the eyes, apparently slightly immune from her Hermione temper after all these years to ask, "Can you please speak to me, Hermione?"

In answer to this, she tilted her head back down to the bag in her hands she had been waving her wand around, just in the process of placing blood wards upon it so that no curious little boys with grabby hands would get any ideas. She tells him with all her attention keeping to her complicated hand gestures, "I thought we didn't keep secrets from each other, Harry. No matter what it is. I know thought that nothing can keep you from something you really want to do though, Harry. Despite knowing that Draco is not a marked Death Eater regardless of his father's associations. But, this map will remain with me from now on. It never should have been made in the first place, as obviously, it violates everyone in this castle's privacy." She looked up to him with calm glowing eyes, "Now, is there anything else you haven't told me?"

"No, there is nothing." Harry tells her, his eyes burning with the lie of the scribbled in book within the confines of his bookbag. Her words of no secrets bothering him more than it should as a dark haired spy also came to mind.

_What other secrets have you hidden from me, my sister- friend?_

She holds his gaze before breaking it once more, "I will also keep your Invisibility Cloak until your birthday. Dumbledore never should have given it to you at such a young age no matter that it was your father's. If we have need of it, it will be in my bag."

Ron finally spoke up in outrage, "'Mione! It's his cloak! You can't take it away from him."

She barely glanced to the red head before continuing to stare down the silent owner of the object in question, "If you can not control yourself to focus on other things that are more important than following a boy who has done nothing to warrant your suspicions, such as figuring out how to get that memory from Slughorn, I will give you the control myself. Taking away your distractions as best I can being the only way, apparently. What Draco has been doing is of little consequence compared to the secrets Slughorn has been keeping about the horcruxes." Slitting the palm of her hand to allow the welling of a thin trail of blood, the boys both flinched at the sudden sight of her little silver dagger. Holding her fist over her beaded bag, she allowed several drops to sink into the fabric and disappear into the slight glow signaling the wards being set.

…

Harry finally followed Hermione's advice after her little push of a speech, and was able to convince Slughorn to give up his most damning memory of a young Tom Riddle with a little help of Liquid Luck Hermione willingly gave him. The memory in which held much shame for the old Potions Professor that Harry then handed over to Dumbledore to draw what conclusions he wished.

_Nothing has changed… nothing at all…_

Everything Hermione had done for Tom, betraying those she loved simply to save their lives, had secured his ability to stay alive, well, and away from the man who sought to take him from her forever. Dumbledore, the meddling old man who had to lead a boy to his death all due to the same prophecy her brother put all his faith in. The prophecy she had changed so that she would not have to change her belief in the power of love and devotion. But she could not help but think of how the man could be right in the aspects he had spoken to Harry of, the sentiment that she herself had thought to herself more than once. The fact that Tom had brought about his own fall by listening to that damable thing she had been forced to twist to her own gain, rather than simply tell her brother it had been lost to them. His sense of vengeance would have been his downfall once again if he had been allowed to continue on alongthat pathway, like a typical man whose ego had been wounded beyond repair.

How could they ever convince Harry to fulfill the prophecy she herself had fed to Tom if Harry was so naive to believe each and every word to come out of the Headmaster's mouth? If he was content in allowing himself to be wrapped up in the older man's beliefs in such a subtle manipulation she couldn't help but grudgingly admire, would he ever go the extra mile she was pushing him towards on his own?

_Dumbledore could have made a good Slytherin for all his cunning and loyalty to his own cause… and at the expense of a boy who has barely lived…_

He had told Harry that he felt vengeance himself for his parents, so now he feels the need to bring about the downfall of Voldemort. But Hermione couldn't help but think, was it really her non- blood brother who felt these things Dumbledore spoke to him of, or was it something that had been thrusted upon him for so long he simply believed that it was to be his life's purpose? His path that would lead him to his death.

He had always told her, either through words or actions, he had never thought much of being in the direct middle of the limelight with all the attention he drew as the Chosen One. But yet, he allowed himself to be taken in to the man who he admired's whispering in his ear all these years that he was indeed the only one who had the power to defeat Tom. She could understand the appeal herself though, Severus had captivated her in one way or another from the very first second they had met.

If the Headmaster had been absent all these years, who's to say that Harry would not have simply felt a deep sadness for the family he did not have, yet had found in the Weasleys a whole other type of family with a mother and father figure who loved him like one of their own. Perhaps he would have even been given to Remus or another distant relative within the Potter family line if Dumbledore had not decided to overtake every aspect of the war, as well as The Chosen One's life. He would not have been treated as a prized student given every opportunity to break the rules other students must abide by, and would have been much like Neville she supposed in the department of a normal boy.

A normal boy whose parents had been taken from him before their time by a madman who sought his death, but was not to be held responsible for ending his reign. He would have been sad, he would have been perhaps angry at the man who had caused so much death and destruction to many others than just himself, and yet, he had not even believed he was the Chosen One for the first few years of his schooling she knew because she knew him like the back of her hand. He never would have taken it into his head that he would be the downfall of Voldemort or had so much anger in his heart if the old headmaster had not egged it on all these years.

_She would not have gained a blood brother who she loved very dearly…_

He would have power the Dark Lord knew nought, Dumbledore told him. But he was wrong in that regard, even as he could have never in a thousand thousand years dreamt he would be wrong in that one piece of information. By the limited memories he had of Tom as a child, a child who had coped in the only way he knew within a decrepit muggle orphanage, he had decided the young boy could not understand nor feel love in even the smallest way.

_But that man now knew nought that the serious boy now had a sister who he loved… and who loves him… above anything else… almost anything else… almost…_

What more of the original prophecy could have remained and what part could have changed since she began meddling in things simply to keep Harry alive and safe as can be, to which Dumbledore was now working against _for the greater good._ Hermione wondered, how ever will they get Harry on the side of the dark if he admitted to the minister himself he was indeed Dumbledore's man through and through? This definitely being something she had thought on before and certainly not the last, she hadn't previously believed it to be a possible feat, and yet, she made the prophecy for Tom in the first place and much had changed between that time and now.

_What had she turned the world into?_

~.O.~

It was then, several weeks before the end of the semester that would change each of their lives in a monumental way, that Hermione felt an all consuming powerful fury mixed heavily with despair towards the boy who she so loved. She couldn't think straight for want of anything having had so hoped Harry would have left Draco alone after she had taken his cloak from him and therefore making it that much harder for him to disobey her wishes. But now as she glanced at the map while furiously stomping down the hallways, she could clearly see how wrong and naive she had been concerning the boy's aims for so long. After all, certain muggles did say love was deaf and blind and dumb. While she may not be either three at the same time, she obviously was in certain instances when it came to her adopted brother who she had done so much for, but could not save him from his own temper nor consuming irrational emotions.

Once she had come upon the Great Hall sans a black haired boy who had left the Common Room minutes before her, as well as a platinum blonde in dark muggle suits beneath his school robes, she had ripped the map out of her bag once she drug the answer she dreaded from a guilty faced Ron. But as she came upon a mostly deserted hallway, empty save for the echoing sound of a high pitched moaning emitting from the girl's bathroom, she found the stones soaked with water as shouted curses and girlish screams came from within the mentioned bathroom. Then, a word she had not thought she would ever hear from a familiar mouth cried out, making her stop in her tracks within the doorway as water soaked into her socks.

" _Sectumsempra!"_

_How could she have been so stupid… so trusting… blinded and deaf to the lies staring her right in the face?_

Wails of the ghost in the round glasses framed by pigtails echoed in Hermione's ears as if she were submerged herself in the liquid she ran through, the broken glass and debris littering the destroyed bathroom as she halted before a bloody and gasping Draco. A round eyed boy standing before him opposite her with a shocked mogue shaping his mouth as if he had expected something different from a spell in a book such as the one he had come into possession of. Her senses rushing back as she found herself kneeling beside the boy with her shaking wand running over the worst of the gashes littering his chest and face, she looked up while continuing to chant to see Severus staring wide eyed at the scene before him.

"Inform the Headmaster to bring himself to the Infirmary," Severus told the short girl with Slytherin green trim upon her robes who had brought him to this madness before him, his order causing her to twitch a nod slightly as her eyes tore themselves away from the blood soaking Hermione's clothes and hands.

Severus ran in feet of lightening to Draco's other side while Harry began stuttering above them, his wand twitching smoothly out of his sleeve before taking over the healing chant on the boy's chest to allow Hermione to end them herself for a moment. Discarding her best friend's apologies and attempts to excuse his actions for the moment, she bent down to Draco's ear and fluttering lids while taking his hand, all the while talking lowly to keep him conscious and coherent.

"It's okay, Draco," she whispered as his hand steadily tightened around her's, "You'll be good as new soon, Severus is right here taking care of you. Healing your wounds." Taking up the task of healing his face once his blood began dribbling down over her hands and wrists from the thinner gashes, her and Severus quickly ended the sad song- like counter curse to bring him to his feet and transfer him to the Hospital Wing and Madame Pomfrey.

Once they had him standing upright and leaning exhausted against Severus' rigid side, Hermione found the paler than normal blonde looking over her curls with an exhausted look as Harry silently stared at the ground and twisted his wand in his hands. Slipping an arm around the boy's other side even though she knew her love was more than capable of supporting him down the hallways, she briefly looked to the darker headed boy with the most disappointed and saddened of looks that caused him to flinch visibly.

"Go back to the Tower, Harry." She told him, turning back away from the tears building in the corners of his eyes.

…

Once she was assured of Draco's stable health and he would sleep the rest of his pain away, she left Severus with assurances she would return his old potions textbook back into his hands as a positive that no other foolish student would use his spells again. Now, standing silently for a moment outside the portrait of the Fat Lady who was giving her sympathetic yet horrified glances once she croaked out the password, she breathed until feeling calm enough to face the small group that awaited her inside without her voice shaking with relief nor anger. Striding slowly into the empty Common Room, except for those who she expected, Harry himself, Ginny, and Ron as well as surprisingly Luna, the blonde was the first to speak to her.

"Hermione," Luna's tinkling voice sounding a little less bright than usual greeted her, rising fluidly to give her a hug heedless of the dried blood covering her. "If I had known what was in that book I would have taken it from him," the girl whispered into her ear as Hermione gripped her shoulders a bit harder than previously, "I knew he had kept it, but I just thought there were potion differences in it. I'm glad Draco is okay though."

"It's alright, Luna." Hermione said into the girl's curly hair much like her own, looking over her slim shoulder to the innocuous book laying before the remaining trio sitting before them on the short table.

Following behind her once they let each other go, the other girl took up her previous position of sitting between Harry and Ron to hold the former's hand, all the while Ginny glancing out of the corner of her eye in intermittent stares towards them. Each eventually raised their gaze to Hermione once she sat across from them on the vacant couch, Crookshanks bounding down the stairs to jump in Hermione's lap in order to sniff at the blood still staining her hands before she reached them out to pick up the book. Harry said nothing as he watched those small appendages flip though the ink stained pages that had cause him so much trouble in a short span of time, no words escaping his mouth until he quietly says her name. But Hermione simply continued pursuing the pages, feeling reverent in the fact that Severus had such a brilliant mind at such a young age even if it were contributed towards something in which had injured his godson.

_He would make a brilliant father someday in the future… if he were so inclined…_

"Hermione," he tried gaining her attention again, "How is he? Is he really alright?"

Finally finding the page describing vaguely the intent of the curse, she ran her fingers over the three short words before closing it once more and sending a purring Crookshanks to watch over Draco for the night. Her eyes lifting to Harry's increasingly wild eyed gaze, she answers his question, "He will fully recover in a few days, fine as can be after a short stay in the Hospital Wing. Save a few scars on his chest where you hit him with the spell, on the deepest of the cuts." He flinched slightly, the others around them uneasily looking between the two friends. "What on Merlin and Morgana's green earth possessed you to use a spell within this book that I specifically told you to return? That you had told me you did return to where you found it?"

The boy looked back down to his hands entwined with the pale support of the girl beside him, "I don't know. I was curious."

Hermione softly repeats his words softly, "You were curious. To what, Harry?" In her sudden returning fit of anger she slammed down the book onto the table between them, prompting Ron's mouth to open indigently, "See what the insides of a man's body looked like? If you wished to know that so badly you could have jut as easily enrolled within a muggle medical university. Or used a diagnostic spell." She turned her glowing eyes to both red heads who each had outrage written on their faces, Luna's having kept the calm she had been projecting, "Ron, Ginny, seeing as how I am speaking to Harry and him alone, I would wish you to keep both of your mouths shut for the moment, please." Their lips snapped shut as if she had used her wand to do so before she took a deep breath and returned her eyes to Harry once more, "I specifically warned you about this book, it's curses, and seeing as how I told you who it belonged to and why it was not the very best idea to be flinging them around at people you did not particularly like within Hogwarts for that specific reason, I would have thought you had hesitated enough to listen to me. Obviously I was wrong in that regard, and everything else I have done to keep you from hurting yourself has been futile."

Silence reigned once more except for the crackling fire, Ron looking very much like he was bursting with questions but heeded Hermione's temper and previous warning.

She asks the darker haired boy, "Did you use any other spells in this book?"

He hesitatingly nodded his head, "Just a few."

She pursed her lips before opening the book to glance at a page and turning it around to tap a word that beside it simply said _to silence._ "Do you know what would have happened if you had decided to use this spell, instead of a simple _Silencio_?" He shook his head silently, "If you had thought, oh this will just knock them unconscious or glue their tongue to the roof of their mouth so they can not speak, you would have been very surprised to find it is more along the lines of the Unforgivables." She looks down to her slim fingers still tracing the words, "This particular one causes the cursed to claw at their own neck with their fingernails, ripping their skin and muscle until you can see their spine through the front of their neck, all in an attempt to yank their own vocal cords from their throats. If by some miracle they live, they will never be the same again and most likely would _not_ be able to speak, so congratulations. You got your wish of silencing them for good."

Finally a paler than normal faced Ron could no longer hold his questions within his brain and asks, "How do you know all of this, 'Mione? How do you know who it belongs to and what these spells do if the book doesn't say?"

She looks to him and pushes the book towards him to show him the loopy spidery writing within, "It was not very hard to figure, Ron. Seeing as how we have seen the same exact handwriting on our potions essays for five whole years, and now our Defense Against the Dark Arts." He opens his mouth in dumbfoundedness as she turned back to Harry who had returned his eyes to her small face as she was speaking to Ron, she ignored Ron's question of how exactly she knew of the uses, "I am not going to punish you, Harry. Honestly, I don't believe anything else I could do would punish you more than I am sure you are punishing yourself."

As she returned to the portrait hole with the book hidden within her beaded bag, she walked past the Head Boy bearing a scroll marked with Dumbledore's seal headed for the exact direction she had just left.

…

Hermione stayed true to her word, she continued to treat Harry just as she always did, although there was a significant amount of tenseness sprinkled among their conversations that had also became much less frequent. The two friend's carefree days, as carefree as they could be anyway, those days were very much no longer a staple of the week. Dumbledore, also staying true to his past, had decided Severus' weekly appointed detentions was a sufficient punishment to one of his precious Gryffindors. Being as that was, and considering all perceived circumstances regarding the war and the Dark Lord, she was glad Harry had not been expelled but thought there should have been more stringent punishments to dole out in cases such as this.

In the time it took Draco to heal fully, and Hermione silently distancing herself from each of her friends and others with the exception of Severus, she continuously gently coaxed the Vanishing Cabinet into giving her the results she wished. Her triumphant day coming to a screeching halt once Harry told her hesitatingly over dinner that the Headmaster wished to take him out of the castle to hopefully find one of the horcruxes. A saddened feeling overcoming her as if a dementor had chosen to kiss her for a moment, she had spontaneously grabbed the boy up in a hug in a way she had not done in ages while pushing his invisibility cloak into his hands.

As his arms had come up around her tightly without any delay, she pressed her lips to his shoulder, and knew without a doubt that once her and Draco found a yellow bird flitting about the closed cabinet just hours later that nothing would be quiet right again for a long while.

~.O.~

Scores of Death Eaters belonging to the Inner Circle of the Dark Lord's cause amassed within Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, binding the students of various houses as well as the professors in a way in which was so efficient it became a terrifying thing to behold. The Headmaster was nowhere to be found, neither was the Boy- Who- Lived, and yet there was no outbursts of temper as to that fact by the handsome young man encased with a circle of bone masked loyal followers. The students had been all rounded up by the intruders and herded, terrified and confused, into the Great Hall as they were stripped of their wands temporarily and whispered as to if this coup was in truth the work of Voldemort. After all, Harry Potter and their Headmaster had repeatedly told them their version of truth, but the Ministry maintained it was simply his masked loyal followers. Even if either of these assumptions were true, what did the terrifying robed figures want with them? Why were they simply being ignored as the figures all stood perfectly still as if imitating statues about the Hall while awaiting instructions, their stances remaining even when several yells and screams were sounded outside.

_The Headmaster was supposed to protect them… where had he gone… had he fled at the scene of dozens of black figures appearing in the halls suddenly as if out of the ether? Surely not… he was the defeater of the once great Gellert Grindelwald…_

Those brave professors and Heads of House not unconscious within the Great Hall were seen in staunch battle against the Death Eaters, until they were overpowered, outnumbered and dropped to the ground into an indefinite sleep themselves. All but the Slytherin Head who was one of those in which few students saw at the side of the handsome blue eyed and dark haired man, protecting him from any stray curses and spells that might cause him harm. The small group ascending the Astronomy Tower in which there was a small light emitting as if from a _lumos_ cast from a bone white wand.

"Stay covered until I tell you, Harry," Dumbledore told his companion weakly, shaking hands covering the messy head of black hair as they listened to the screams of small children echoing on the stone walls of the school, and footsteps coming up the metal stairs of the tower in which they stood. A golden locket dangled from the man's left hand fingers as he expelled the light of his wand.

Harry stood just to the side of Dumbledore, not knowing who they were to come face to face with in the next second. Once he did lay his eyes on the face of the man who his sister loved and trusted above all else, and the familiar blue eyed man within the circle of protectors, anger filled him as Snape raised his wand to the Headmaster, the short figure beside him taking Dumbledore's wand with a silent _Expelliarmus._

_Something was just on the tip of his tongue… something having long balanced there too long… but what was it? So familiar…_

"Please, Severus," Dumbledore told his most trusted spy, a terror he had only ever felt few times before in his long lifetime filling the pit of his stomach, and yet a strange sort of acceptance. He had lived a long life full of everything he could have wanted, barring a few exceptions, and if this night were to end in the way he thought, he would have few regrets. But even a few were too many at this point.

_A beautiful young blonde man with one light and one dark eye flitted through his brain… his one great love… yet one great regret…_

_Who would look after the boy after this? How did he misjudge how most loyal spy's intentions for so long?_

_Who would know what needed to be done…_

Those who surrounded Tom Riddle resurrected lowered their hoods, unveiling Lucius and Draco Malfoy, Antonin Dolohov, Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange, and a shirtless Fenrir Greyback who began stalking the small room restlessly. The figure beside Snape remained cowled, but Albus knew exactly who the robes covered.

_How had he been so blind in his ego once again? Again… one of the regrets… a small girl with an adoring smile… Gellert's mismatched eyes looking into his own…_

"Finish him, Severus." Tom Riddle drawled, his voice drawing Dumbledore's eyes.

"Hello, Tom." The Headmaster said to the boy he had spent years and years fighting against, drawing people together so he would not yet again have to face yet another of his failures. All for the good it had done.

Tom's lips twisted into a sneer that did nothing to detract from the attractiveness of his face so much like his sixteen year old self Harry had met within a long gone diary, "My name is Marvolo now." His eyes twitched towards the two main figures standing before him, "Go on, Severus, Sister."

Harry jolted in surprise and confusion at the term of endearment, never knowing Voldemort had any type of sister let alone a magical one, and judging by Dumbledore's slight jerk, he did not either. Hermione looked up to Severus' stony face from beneath her cowl, just knowing how it might kill part of his soul to murder the man they were tasked with killing no matter the hatred suffusing either of their hearts. So, making a split decision that would have more consequences than anything she had ever done, she placed her hand over Severus' that held his wand aloft.

Sudden explosions rocking the tower, each of the inhabitants lost their balance for a moment that allowed Dumbledore to lift his suddenly steady hand towards the black clad man, his eyes on the girl beside him as his lips twisted into a sad smile before turning back towards the boy who had once seen him as a father, "I am sorry, girl. My boy. Hopefully this will atone for some of my failures towards you."

Her eyes widening, two words twisted her and Severus' lips in the same moment a wandless spell was directed to her love's chest that knocked him onto the floor beside her, unconscious as fading white overlapping lines upon his wrist and hand disappearing beneath his leather bracelet indicating an Unbreakable Vow being released. The Headmaster fell to the ground level of the Astronomy Tower, screams ringing in the sudden silence to the top while both Hermione and Tom went to their knees beside Severus to run white healing hands all alone his length.

All the while, as Hermione had joined her hand with her love's to deliver that damnable curse, Harry Potter stared uncomprehendingly at the familiar charms glinting on the bracelet attached to her exposed wrist. That thing having balanced for months on the top of his tongue since he first set eyes on her after binding herself to her brother, her cheekbones sharpened into a likeness to him, finally toppled right over onto it's side. Somehow he knew all along who the small figure somehow always accompanying Severus was as it had always been, just as it had both been a surprise to find them lovers, and yet not. Just as they two spells were cast by the most powerful men in the room, Fenrir Greyback completed his third round of stalking the length of the room, smelling the fear of the cloaked figure and the blood pumping fast through his heart. His mind numbed by the new information he never would have guessed out loud even in jest before this day, he was brought to heel as sharp fangs dug into his neck as the cloak ripped off his body. He fell heavily to the floor with sudden feminine screams filling his ears.

_They have won… all was lost…_

_How did it come to this?_

...

Hermione sat between her two black haired men, the other Death Eaters outside of the Infirmary making sure the trouble students and bound professors were being escorted back to their houses efficiently on her orders, knowing that once the Ministry was alerted more reinforcements would arrive in due time. As well as those within the Order. There could be no doubt as to the identity of who had lead the attack on the Hogwarts Headmaster and the school under his charge, Tom Marvolo Riddle also known as Voldemort to those who feared him, the Dark Lord. High ranking members of the Ministry also holding a place within the Order of the Phoenix most likely having alerted the Minister of the night's events, Pius could only delay aurors so long as to allow them to escape the school. But it would matter to Hermione not one bit, everything yet nothing had gone to plan this night.

The curly haired girl could only brush a sweaty blood soaked lock of hair across Harry's forehead, pressing her lips to it as his eyes opened groggily. He would not make it through the night she knew, Fenrir's teeth being made to puncture veins and muscle as smooth as butter each time he sought one out. Magic was no balm to a werewolf's bite.

"'Mione," he croaked out to her lowly, his vocal cords near torn to pieces, "I saw you," he told her, to her immense non- surprise.

She smiled slightly at him, meeting two pairs of sad grey eyes standing near the window over the prone boy's head, the only black robed figures to grace the otherwise empty Hospital Wing.

"I know, Harry. I am so sorry."

_She hugged both Lucius and Draco tightly even as she was once again covered in blood in too short a time, so tightly she wished she could never let them seperate themselves from her again. She pulled back to smile her own sadness to them that was mirrored on their faces, kissing their cheeks as they each walked back into the Hospital Wing's doors once again. Walked back to the boy she had done everything to keep alive, thought she had planned for every eventuality. She was wrong. So wrong._

His throat worked to allow all the words he needed to say to his best friend, to his sister before he succumbed to his injuries, "Why did you let Cedric die?"

It was the one thing that had never made sense, why did that sweet boy who always had a smile for everyone have to die? Why did the man who was the brother to the girl he had thought was his sister kill him? How had she become ensnared in that Dark Lord's web as easily as Bellatrix Lestrange?

All questions for the ages.

_Hermione hugged Luna who had hidden through the short battle and then hesitatingly revealed herself to the other curly haired girl, managing to avoid the Death Eaters crawling about the school like ants through a hill. The pale girl looked to Hermione with calm eyes despite everything Hermione had babbled at her in her short bought of panic and scramble mindedness, revealing her true goals and alliances all through the years they had known each other._

_But Luna stayed true to herself and her personality._

_She had placed a pale hand wringed in bottle caps on her friend's face while the other tugged on the strap of the beaded bag practically glued to Hermione's skin even beneath her Death Eater robes she still wore, "You know what to do, Hermione."_

It was as if ice had made it's way through her veins in a mimicry of what she had felt that not so long ago night, slowly making her cold from her lips to her toes, "It was never supposed to happen like that, Harry." She stifled a sob in her throat as old and new guilt and sorrow came along with the coldness, "He was never supposed to be there. Tom had lost his wits after just being resurrected, and he lashed out at the closest thing that was not familiar to him." She closed her eyes just as Harry's slipped shut in his exhaustion as well, just on the cusp of closing forever as she continued to whisper to him with her forehead pressed to his, "I understand if you have to break your promise, Harry. But remember, everything I have done was to protect you. To keep you alive, and know that I will always love you. Even if you can never love me again." She paused for a second, speaking to Harry's steadily dimming soul as if not aware she was speaking out loud, "I should have been worried about _me_ all along."

She continued to stroke her chosen brother's forehead, tears leaking down her cheeks as loud muffled shouts began outside the heavy wooden doors to the room. Lucius and Draco shifting as their wands appeared in their hands, moving to stand guard before her and the doors. She ignored everything around her as swirling thoughts filled with definitions of devotion and loyalty she had once dismissed in denial began again within her mind, at a time like this.

" _I am sorry, my Brother. My blood." Hermione told her brother's peaceful face as she held his head in her lap for one second more. The still retreating footsteps of their followers levitating both the bodies of her love and other brother quickly growing farther away as she cast the spell over her brother, gently lowering him to the ground to tell him her goodbyes._

_His eyes flickered from behind his lids, signaling that he could hear every word she said even if he could not answer her back. That was how she had wanted it, least she begin bawling to the point of no return as he held onto her. Asking her what she was going to do, how she could leave him._

_That he loved her more than anything… his only family…_

" _Everything I have done in this war, Tom, and everything I will do has been for the betterment of everyone involved. Including you, and me. Know that no matter what I have to do, I will protect the people I love. Including you, Brother."_

She left her brother under the light of the crescent moon as the feeling of crushed velvet slid through her fingers and into her beaded bag, cushioned on the soft grass of the Hogwarts grounds with a pale girl looking on as hissing filling the silence, a command given to the only other conscious creature of like blood that remained.

_All would be well again…_

She kissed Harry's forehead with trembling lips one last time, never knowing his eyes had opened once more to see a golden chain wrapped around his sister's neck framing another that peeked from behind her shirt collar. And as his eyes grew blurry and unfocused, never to blink again, his last memory would be of the girl he loved with all his being with her watery smile blinding him with it's brilliance as the last words on her lips were of _I love you_.

Best friend, sister, family.

_If you ever find out what I have done in this war, Harry, or whatever I will do… Promise me you won't hate me…_

_I promise…_

_I… promise…_

Hermione leaned over Severus Snape, killer, spy, lover, and wrapped that all too familiar chain around his neck under the sad watchful gazes of the two Malfoy men who loved her just as much as Harry had. The doors to the Wing bursting open in splinters, wood flying in all directions as a now awake brother burst into the room to see a sister with a time turner in hand, small fingers just on the dial. Setting eyes on one another, Tom Marvolo Riddle, The Dark Lord Voldemort let panic sweep across his body that was infinitely more painful than any restoration magic he had performed. He now knew the meaning of her words, and the panic dripped away as if water flowing off his body. Her wet golden eyes meeting his for the last time with sadness and yet a joy that should have never been there in circumstances such as these, her whispers within his head.

_I love you, Tom. I will see you very soon, my love._

With these words, the only family he had ever known disappeared in a golden white flash just as an orange, green and purple blur seemingly came from the veil and jumped onto the dark man's slowly rising chest.


	37. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're at the end of the line, thank you everyone so much for reading and I love you all!

" _It was like a dream you might have after death in which lost people came back to life, your friends loved you again no matter what you had done, and your failures were unaccountably forgiven."_

~.O.~

There was once two fated peoples, bound together by the incomprehensible love they held for one another and blessed by the gods. This dark man, and this woman of the light had fought a long and hard war of Death, and of the soul. Only one would be conquered at this time, and it was that one in which had been as timeless as the earth itself.

The war of Death on the behalf of the girl's beloved brother, and the acceptance that all must die in their own time. But this ending had not concluded as you might expect.

You see, there was once a similar story of three brothers encountering Death who had been cheated by these mere mortal men. These three magical brothers blessed by the Gods themselves with magic, had flouted he who was immortal, and gained three powerful objects in return.

The first brother had asked for a wand more powerful than any other in existence, and so Death had fashioned him one from an elder tree near the river the three might have drowned and left this world if it weren't for their magic. This brother then continued on his own path to a nearby town where an old foe lived, killing him and flaunting his seemingly invincible self to any who would listen. That night Death would take his soul, for another had decided he must be invincible himself, and so slit the brother's throat for good measure. This Elder Wand would then come into both our fated lovers' hands by way of this war on Death, the own brother of the girl never knowing one of the objects he had come to covet by way of this story had fallen into the hands of his own sister. The two loves would then both become Master of this wand in conjunction with one another due to the the shared defeat of the previous owner. This would be the end to the bloody history that had followed the fated wand throughout the many years since it came into existence.

The second brother had then decided to ask of Death an object to recall loved ones from the grave, and so Death begrudgingly obliged by gifting him a stone plucked from the nearby river. Never telling of the fate that would befall those souls called back from the Gods, residing upon the mortal world once more only to wither into cold and sadness like none other. Once this brother had found what Death had kept from him, his delight at seeing his once vibrant and healthy love turned sour and so killed himself so as to join her for eternity. Never to be parted again. Death then took the second brother, and yet not the stone that would be handed down by his remaining living family until it once again came into the hands of one half of our fated couple. Gifted to her by the same brother of the Gaunt family line who had coveted the Elder Wand, who once again was another step closer to evading his ultimate goal of becoming immortal.

Finally, the third brother was gifted Death's own personal Cloak of Invisibility. A Cloak that would allow him to live out his life in full, before passing it on to his son and greeting Death as an old friend, continuing on to the next life as equals. Alas, Death was also not able to take back the third and final object as the third brother's son gifted it on to his, and then he to his own before eventually it fell into the hands of Hermione Granger. The last son of the Potter family line's non- blooded sister and our story's heroine.

The Tale of the Three Brothers had ended, and yet the story of the Deathly Hallows had not. This Hermione girl, the one in who possessed each of the Hallows had not sought them out for herself per say, but for her brother who had feared death for himself and those he loved above all else in the world. Who sought, like the Three Peverell Brothers who had first cheated Death themselves, an end to the weak mortality even those blessed by the Gods were slaves to. Sadly, she had parted from him just as the three brothers parted themselves, and embarked on an entirely new adventure with her own love. So, seeking peace, and the end to the war against Death neither of them had ever thought they would become figureheads of, as one they decided to give Death back his gifts he had parted with so long ago.

With these intentions, they turned the Resurrection Stone thrice in hand, the Elder Wand and Invisibility Cloak held in another, and called the dreaded hooded figure named Death to them. As impressed by these two magical creatures in an altogether different way than he had been by the three brothers so long ago, Death took upon himself to once again gift the three objects to a family who would never part so long as _he_ lived. But, he also gave the couple the last one he would bestow upon those of their heritage and mortal world for the rest of his days and theirs.

Feeling the depth of their love for one another, and grateful to have his long lost possessions back in completely safe hands, Death bound their souls into one, gifting them the power to live forever along with any others of their blood. The goal they had long sought for a master now long dead, depending on your take on the meaning of time, finally achieved. Leaving with them those cursed objects and the responsibility he had once gifted to the three brothers, he left all as it should have been and more.

~.O.~

Shelia and Mark Granger had been blessed with a child, a little girl who could perform magic of all things. In their eyes, unlike most muggles who would fear the child of their bodies in such circumstances, this made their daughter extraordinary and altogether even more perfect than they could have ever imagined. Then came time to send her away to the magical school they would never be able to see for themselves, and as many parents would be, they were a bit apprehensive at first of sending her away from them at such a young age. She had never had many friends in muggle primary school as she was much more mature for her age and preferred books to playing on the swings and slides, but they acquiesced in hopes that maybe she would fit in better with the other children of magic.

It did help that their Hermione girl had taken an instant shine to the oddly dressed dark clad professor the even more oddly clothed Headmaster had told them taught Potions, all the better for muggleborns to meet at least one of their new professors before beginning the school. Their daughter having switched their teacups for reasons unknown to others outside of her own head, the professor had simply smiled down to her with slightly crooked teeth they would have loved to get their hands on so as their profession, and took a large sip from the delicate china. All to the curly haired girl's delight, and the Headmaster's obvious puzzlement if the look on his bearded face was anything to go by.

Once her first year had gone by, they were beyond pleased with their decision. If it ever had been their own seeing as how could they ever have stunted something so defined in their tiny daughter ever since she was an infant moving about her mobile above her with a giggle and wave of a tiny fist? She talked of a Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy and Ronald Weasley, four boys she had met on the train her very first day towards Hogwarts and hoped they could visit during the summer months. Shelia and Mark simply exchanged surprised yet pleased glances at her mile a minute words and hopeful request, saying that yes, she could have any friends she wished over any time and even their parents as they wished to meet them as well. To get a better feel of the new world Hermione belonged to of course, and hopefully could immerse themselves in at least a tiny bit so as to understand it. Severus Snape was also a feature they were glad to welcome into their home, a man who seemed to be even closer to their girl than any friends she had made of her own age. If they had any qualms about the grown man spending so much time with her, it was quickly overridden by the obvious affection they both held for one other.

They had also gained double the friends Hermione had with this decision, meeting the Potters, Longbottoms, Weasleys, and many others who all seemed to know each other and welcome the Grangers with open arms. Shelia and Lily Potter especially made great friends as Harry, the boy Hermione seemed to be closest with and regarded like a brother, frequented their halls many days throughout the years of her schooling in addition to Draco. Although, they did seem to hit a few bumps along the two women's friendship in regards to Severus' frequent visits to Hermione, as well as their closeness. This was where Mrs. Granger had drawn the line of topics they would rather not speak of and let the chips fall where they may, the red headed woman having attempted to tell her it might be best to limit Hermione's time with the man who she seemed to love just as much as the other woman's son, and the young Malfoy boy. An ugly name being flung at her just over a decade ago, her husband and his magical brothers previous teenage angers, and the man's seemingly obvious dealings within the Dark Arts may not be suitable company for their only child after all. Lily was simply thinking of their girl's safety, and not her own comfort at being around him so often once more.

The curly haired mother's only response was to invite the usually reserved man into their tradition of going to the theater and seeing the Nutcracker during Yule, bringing about an end to any objections from Mrs. Potter. Although, it had surprisingly endeared herself to Narcissa Malfoy who held a special love and affection for the dark man stemming from the man being her child's godfather as well as her husband's closest friend, and helped along her own relationship with the other woman as well. To which Shelia was grateful for as Hermione seemed to care for the other woman as much as Severus did.

As the years had gone by, life with their daughter immersed in the magical world was absolutely spectacular, the things the two muggle parents had seen from their new friends being something straight out of a storybook or fairytale. They never before would have imagined such a thing as a man turning into a dog, a deer, or a werewolf were real, but their daughter had proved them wrong as well when she and Severus had first shifted into their respective forms of a white as snow fox and a midnight black panther right in front of them and their friends. Hermione had run along the backs of Sirius's form, as well as Severus' whose nose she had pawed while balancing on top his large head before grooming him between his ears while he purred, and then scampering along her parent's shoulders to rest on Lucius Malfoy's who she called Uncle at times. Hiding her face in his hair just pale as her fur coat while draped around his neck like a scarf, he had picked her up gently from that position before holding her like a newborn on her back along his crooked arm, her paws coming up to once again paw at his chin much like she had done to Severus' nose.

Lily and the others who had not seen that side of those within the Granger's aquanitence who they considered of the _Darker Arts_ , which seemed to matter very much to them, had seemed shocked they would deal with such behavior from the muggleborn girl. Granted, the two Malfoys and Severus _were_ all much more reserved when around the Weasley family or the Potters and their various friends. Mark and Shelia had once asked Hermione what the fixation was on the Dark Arts within those who practiced magic, the year Severus had switched from Potions to Defense Against the Dark Arts in fact in the girl's third year, and while she had gotten the most peculiar look upon her face she had simply said it was considered the more seductive of the magics. A branch in which dealt more with blood sacrifices, or magics in which one could lose control easier than that of the lighter ones.

"You aren't using that type of magics are you, dear?" They had asked her once she fully explained the difference, to which she gave them a sweet smile.

"Well, not the blood sacrifices of course. Those would require actual human beings or animal sacrifices, but Severus makes sure to limit what he allows me to read of them regardless, and practice. He thinks it is too much temptation." She had rolled her eyes while pouting at Severus who had been listening to their conversation all the while in his panther form before the fire, the man simply yawning widely before blinking lazily at her as she ended the conversation with a hissed word of _Hypocrite._

It then was the time when Hermione came to them one year, just days before having to return to Hogwarts for her sixth year with a nervous face and twisting fingers rolling around the pearl necklace Severus had given her years ago around within her fingernails. The pearl that was now stained black for some reason or another the girl had not told them the why of, nor had they gotten around to asking just yet.

"What is the matter, love?" Shelia asked while stirring a pot for their dinner, wiping her hands once she was done to give her child her full attention. Mark looked over his book from where he sat at the table as well, bookmarking it before setting it down once he observed their daughter's nervous tick. "Is it about, Severus?" The man not having been around as much as he usually was after leaving Hermione in a sort of quiet restlessness a few days before, Sheila's motherly instincts had been tingling ever since then.

Hermione looked stricken for a second, giving her mother an almost scared borderlining terrified expression, "Yes." She had squeaked, hands twisting around each other even more, "I wanted to tell you both-," she halted looking up at the ceiling then the ground before darting her eyes to both of her patient parents once again, "Severus rather," she corrected herself before continuing on more of a high speed than normal, "thought it was the best time to tell you both that we have decided to be together. In a relationship. We have decided to be in a relationship together, a romantic one." Silence reigned within the kitchen with the exception of the boiling water behind the oldest female Granger, the two parents exchanging glances as Hermione sees before flinching and attempting to start again, "I know he's still my professor, but- "

Shelia cut her daughter off before she could get herself up into a tizzy once again, saying calmer than a parent shown be in a situation such as this, "You love him."

Mark smiled at Hermione's absolutely stunned expression, "You have always loved him, darling. It's not that much of a surprise that you have decided to spend your lives together, your mother and I have actually been making bets on how long it would take _you_ to see it yourself."

Hermione had sounded completely lost and dazed when she said, "I didn't say anything about spending the rest of our lives together, _we_ haven't even talked about it. _Yet._ "

The three of them had ended up tightly squeezed together in a warm hug, with Hermione's mother whispering into her ear, "I would very much like to see you in a white dress, my love."

This would be the last days they would see of their daughter for many months, indeed even _hear_ from their girl until they once again got a visit from the odd Headmaster they had met only the one time he informed them their daughter would be taken from them. Taken from them and given to the man who she so loved all these years long. But this time, he came with a somber face so unlike the calm joy he had before when telling them of their gifted child's future.

"Mr. and Mrs. Granger," he greeted them gravely with a tip of his head and slight jingle of the small bells wrapping his beard into a long tail. They invited him into their home before he continued with his news, declining a drink, "I have come to inform you, that there has been an incident at Hogwarts just days ago. Your daughter, Hermione, and Severus Snape have both disappeared from our school roster as well as the grounds and can not be found."

Mark and Shelia both exchanged familiar glances, once again surprisingly calm in a situation such as the one they have been thrust into much like how they had felt when speaking to Hermione of her love. They knew if Severus was with her, wherever they were on this big earth they called home, that she would be perfectly safe and sane. "What do you mean, Headmaster, that they have disappeared from your roster? Disappeared from the grounds?"

"It means, Mr. Granger, that there has been a disturbance in the magical time line, and Hermione and Severus are no longer considered neither a student or professor. We have searched all about the Hogwarts grounds and surrounding villages, as well as have alerted the Ministry for Magic who is still searching for them as we speak. This is not the first time something like this has happened, I am sure within the next couple weeks they will have something to tell us." He then left them with one more solemn apology and a low respectful bow.

His estimate of when they next would receive news of their child's whereabouts was just about correct, but not in the way he might have expected. News of her and Severus arrived by way of mail given to them by a man of the post in a plain white envelope, a picture that Shelia had just cried and cried tears of joy over.

Hermione, their beautiful little girl turned sharp cheeked woman stood beside her dark man in a sleek silken dress common in the style of several decades ago that covered to her ankles, her curls crowned with an intricate lace veil just as long. But neither of those characteristics nor the beautifully scaled snake around her neck detracted from two very important things. One of which was a small smiling boy giggling up to Hermione's face being balanced on her right hip, waving down to the familiar orange cat that had disappeared just as Hermione and her now husband had. The second, was the curving bump upon her previously flat stomach that Severus' hand rested upon. Being that it was a magical photograph, the picture looped between Hermione and the boy both waving to the camera as well as each other while Severus simply smiled, and Hermione smiling up to Severus while putting her hand boasting a black stone ring upon a delicate golden band upon his arm before he moved his own holding a bulbed bone colored wand towards the curve of her stomach. Crookshanks all the while winding around both his Mistress and Master's feet, and the large shimmering purple and green snake acting as if mimicking a feather boa hissing her long tongue out as well to taste the obvious happiness of the newly married couple.

Flipping the thick photograph around with tears continuing to stream down her as well as her husband's cheeks, pride at seeing their little girl all grown up and with a family of their own, Mrs. Granger was right in expecting Hermione's loopy inked script to greet her on the other side. The last three words greeting them causing the mother to grip the father's arm in a tight grip, betraying the deep but previously unacknowledged fear that they would never see their little love again living within their hearts ever since the Headmaster had told them of them being lost within the years of time.

_Hermione and Severus Snape on their wedding day, 1928, with blood adopted son Marvolo Riddle, soon to be born Adelphie Snape, and beloved familiars Kneazle Crookshanks and Snake Nagini._

_See you soon._

Days later, they would once again be graced with their daughter's growing family upon the front steps of Hermione's childhood home. A handsome young man with black hair and dark eyes just like his father holding the hand of a beautiful curly haired girl with the same eyes as the men in her life, accompanying their once again with child daughter and beloved husband.

All was well, and as it should have been in the world that had not been graced with another Dark Lord, but with a powerfully intelligent family that would live until the world ended in ash.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for all of your support and reviews, so just to wrap everything up I would like to clarify what has happened at the end of the story as I have been getting confused reviews.
> 
> The beginning of this chapter as you can see is a retelling of the story of the Deathly Hallows, telling the events that has happened after Hermione and Severus use the Time Turner in the previous chapter after Harry dies, showing them becoming immortal (as well as any children of their bloodline they might have in the future including Tom as they have magically adopted him, and if you want to go step further Hermione's parents if they so choose that life). After these events have occurred the timeline that has been told throughout the story has been significantly altered into what things would have been without Voldemort and the children of Hogwarts having grown up in a war, seeing as how Tom never grew up to be the Dark Lord. Everyone who died in the first Wizarding war is alive and maintaining the connections they would have grown in either timeline, Hermione and Severus still end up falling in love with her parents supporting them, but eventually as the timelines catch up to the time in which Hermione and Severus first disappeared in the world of Voldemort they are able to reconnect with those they had not seen since using the Time Turner to raise Tom and save all those who had died previously.
> 
> The end events that take place after Dumbledore informs Hermione's parents of her and Severus' disappearance simply shows a little piece of the aftermath of the timelines convergence. The picture Hermione having sent her mother and father showing their burgeoning family, as well as meeting up with them once more and bringing Tom and their daughter to meet their grandparents.
> 
> Hope this clarifies everything for anyone having questions, and hope to see ya'll in my other stories!


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